Growing up today brings extraordinary opportunities—but also new challenges.
Young people today are growing up in a rapidly changing world shaped by technological innovation, globalisation, climate change, social transformation, and economic uncertainty. Understanding these challenges is the first step towards building resilience, developing new skills, and creating. opportunities for a better future. While these developments create exciting opportunities, they also introduce new uncertainties and responsibilities. Understanding the realities shaping young people's lives is essential for building inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities.
What You'll Explore
🌍 A rapidly changing world
📱European Youth Goals
⚖️Education and lifelong learning
🚀Employment and future skills
🔗 Explore related topics
A World in Transition
Today's young people are the first generation to grow up in a world where digital technologies, global communication, artificial intelligence, climate change, and rapid social transformation influence everyday life from an early age. Many traditional pathways to education, employment, and community participation are changing, creating new possibilities while also requiring new skills and greater adaptability.
These changes affect young people across the world in different ways. Their experiences are shaped by their communities, cultures, economic circumstances, and access to opportunities. Yet many of the challenges they face are shared across countries and societies.
Young people today are growing up in a rapidly changing world shaped by technological innovation, globalisation, climate change, social transformation, and economic uncertainty. Understanding these challenges is the first step towards building resilience, developing new skills, and creating. opportunities for a better future. While these developments create exciting opportunities, they also introduce new uncertainties and responsibilities. Understanding the realities shaping young people's lives is essential for building inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities.
What You'll Explore
🌍 A rapidly changing world
📱European Youth Goals
⚖️Education and lifelong learning
🚀Employment and future skills
🔗 Explore related topics
A World in Transition
Today's young people are the first generation to grow up in a world where digital technologies, global communication, artificial intelligence, climate change, and rapid social transformation influence everyday life from an early age. Many traditional pathways to education, employment, and community participation are changing, creating new possibilities while also requiring new skills and greater adaptability.
These changes affect young people across the world in different ways. Their experiences are shaped by their communities, cultures, economic circumstances, and access to opportunities. Yet many of the challenges they face are shared across countries and societies.
A Shared Vision for Europe's Young People - European Youth Goals
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What Shapes Young People's Lives Today?
Young people are growing up in a rapidly changing world influenced by technological innovation, demographic change, globalisation, environmental challenges and evolving labour markets. These transformations create new opportunities while also presenting challenges that require new knowledge, skills and resilience.
Young people are growing up in a rapidly changing world influenced by technological innovation, demographic change, globalisation, environmental challenges and evolving labour markets. These transformations create new opportunities while also presenting challenges that require new knowledge, skills and resilience.
Employment and Future Skills
The Future of Jobs Report 2025 : The jobs of the future & the skills you need to get them.
Major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labour market by 2030: technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition.
The Future of Jobs Report 2025 brings together the perspective of over 1,000 leading global employers—collectively representing more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies from around the world—to examine how these macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe.
Major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labour market by 2030: technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition.
The Future of Jobs Report 2025 brings together the perspective of over 1,000 leading global employers—collectively representing more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies from around the world—to examine how these macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe.
- 170 million jobs will be created (equivalent to 14% of today’s employment)
- 92 million roles will be displaced by these same trends
- meaning a net employment increase of 78 million jobs
Jobs of the future
Some jobs are growing fast – in percentage terms, demand for roles driven by technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly increasing. These jobs include big data specialists, fintech engineers and AI and machine learning specialists.
The report list shows 15 professions that will see the largest net growth and decline. It represents the combining estimates from surveyed companies with International Labour Organization employment data, the report lists the
The largest growing jobs are dominated by roles core to many economies.
Farmworkers top the list. Green transition trends, including efforts to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the climate crisis, will drive growth that will create 34 million additional jobs by 2030, adding to the 200 million farmworkers today. Widening digital access and the rising cost of living are also contributing to the profession’s growth.
Delivery drivers, software developers, building construction workers and shop salespersons complete the top five.
Food processing workers also feature among the largest growing jobs, while care jobs – including nursing professionals, social workers and counselling professionals – are projected to grow significantly over the next five years. This can be explained by demographic trends, especially ageing working-age populations.
Some jobs are growing fast – in percentage terms, demand for roles driven by technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly increasing. These jobs include big data specialists, fintech engineers and AI and machine learning specialists.
The report list shows 15 professions that will see the largest net growth and decline. It represents the combining estimates from surveyed companies with International Labour Organization employment data, the report lists the
The largest growing jobs are dominated by roles core to many economies.
Farmworkers top the list. Green transition trends, including efforts to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the climate crisis, will drive growth that will create 34 million additional jobs by 2030, adding to the 200 million farmworkers today. Widening digital access and the rising cost of living are also contributing to the profession’s growth.
Delivery drivers, software developers, building construction workers and shop salespersons complete the top five.
Food processing workers also feature among the largest growing jobs, while care jobs – including nursing professionals, social workers and counselling professionals – are projected to grow significantly over the next five years. This can be explained by demographic trends, especially ageing working-age populations.
Young people are the leaders of tomorrow
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Meantime, youth unemployment is a severe global challenge, with young people (typically aged 15–24) experiencing jobless rates two to three times higher than the general adult population. Tightening economic conditions, corporate hiring freezes, and structural shifts like automation have left millions of young workers struggling to secure entry-level positions.
- Worldwide Average: The International Labour Organization reports global youth unemployment sits near 12.4% for young men and 12.3% for young women.
- European Union: The average EU youth unemployment rate stands at 15.2%. However, stark regional disparities exist, with nations like Spain (26.6%) and Romania (25.3%) facing severe structural crises.
YOUTH Unemployment
Source: OECD (2021), Unemployment rate by age group (indicator).
The unemployed are people of working age who are without work, are available for work, and have taken specific steps to find work. Unemployment rates are shown for two age groups: youth 15 to 24 (those just entering the labour market following education) - the red line; and people aged 25 and over - the blue line. The data reveals that unemployement rate under 25 in OECD countries is 2-3 times higher than for people over 25.
The effects on young people hits their well-being and diminishes the productive capacity of economies. There is a serious need to invest in youth, to create quality jobs and help them to build confidence in their future prospects.
Youth unemployment by gender
Bellow tables show the youth unemployment MEN (on the left) vs. WOMEN (on the right) in EU (purple line), in OECD countries (the black line, as baseline) and in Denmark (red line)
Source: OECD Data.
Here, the youth unemployment rate is the number of unemployed 15-24 year-olds expressed as a percentage of the youth labour force. Unemployed people are those who report that they are without work, that they are available for work and that they have taken active steps to find work in the last four weeks.
Source: OECD Data.
Here, the youth unemployment rate is the number of unemployed 15-24 year-olds expressed as a percentage of the youth labour force. Unemployed people are those who report that they are without work, that they are available for work and that they have taken active steps to find work in the last four weeks.
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Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET).
In the bellow tables, NEET is presented as a percentage of the total number of young people in the corresponding age group, Young people in education include those attending part-time or full-time education, but exclude those in non-formal education and in educational activities of very short duration. Employment is defined according to the OECD/ILO Guidelines and covers all those who have been in paid work for at least one hour in the reference week of the survey or were temporarily absent from such work. Therefore NEET youth can be either unemployed or inactive and not involved in education or training. Young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training are at risk of becoming socially excluded – individuals with income below the poverty-line and lacking the skills to improve their economic situation.
In the bellow tables, NEET is presented as a percentage of the total number of young people in the corresponding age group, Young people in education include those attending part-time or full-time education, but exclude those in non-formal education and in educational activities of very short duration. Employment is defined according to the OECD/ILO Guidelines and covers all those who have been in paid work for at least one hour in the reference week of the survey or were temporarily absent from such work. Therefore NEET youth can be either unemployed or inactive and not involved in education or training. Young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training are at risk of becoming socially excluded – individuals with income below the poverty-line and lacking the skills to improve their economic situation.
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Work-based learning and apprenticeships
Work-based learning (WBL) could be a powerful vehicle for developing workplace skills and promoting productivity of the labour force, when both sides - firms and trainees engage in WBL that effectively increases productivity, but the development of WBL systems creates large challenges in :
- engaging the employers that must provide the work placements,
- making apprenticeship attractive to young people who might otherwise pursue academic studies,
- delivering skills that are not only immediately valuable but support career development.
Work-based learning (WBL) could be a powerful vehicle for developing workplace skills and promoting productivity of the labour force, when both sides - firms and trainees engage in WBL that effectively increases productivity, but the development of WBL systems creates large challenges in :
- engaging the employers that must provide the work placements,
- making apprenticeship attractive to young people who might otherwise pursue academic studies,
- delivering skills that are not only immediately valuable but support career development.
Resources:
- Youth Aspirations and the Reality of Jobs in Developing Countries. Mind the Gap, OECD Development Centre 2017
- The future of rural youth in developing countries: Tapping the potential of local value chains, OECD Development Centre 2018
- Evidence-based Policy Making for Youth Well-being, A Toolkit, OECD Development Policy Tools 2017
- NEET, OECD
- Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2023
- Assessing and Anticipating Skills for the Green Transition, Unlocking Talent for a Sustainable Future, OECD 2023
- Improving the Quality of Non-Formal Adult Learning, OECD 2021
- Career Guidance for Adults in a Changing World of Work, OECD 2021
- The demand for language skills in the European labour market. Evidence from online job vacancies, OECD 2023
- Work-based learning and the green transition, 2022
- Helping young people navigate the future of work, OECD podcast 2021,
- Cedefop/OECD report: Apprenticeships for Greener Economies and Societies
- Cedefop/OECD report: The Next Steps for Apprenticeship
- Improving work-based learning in schools
- Working it out: Career Guidance and Employer Engagement
- Making skills transparent: Recognising vocational skills acquired through workbased learning, 2018
- Striking the right balance: Costs and benefits of apprenticeship
- Work, train, win: work-based learning design and management for productivity gains
- Work-based Learning for Youth at Risk: Getting Employers on Board, 2016
- OECD policy reviews of vocational education and training (VET) and adult learning
- Adult learning and basic skills
- VET country reviews
- Unlocking the potential of migrants through VET
- Work-based learning in school-based VET
- OECD Reviews of Vocational Education and Training, 2023
- Work-based learning and the green transition, 2022
- Helping young people navigate the future of work, OECD podcast 2021,
- Cedefop/OECD report: Apprenticeships for Greener Economies and Societies
- Cedefop/OECD report: The Next Steps for Apprenticeship
- Improving work-based learning in schools
- Working it out: Career Guidance and Employer Engagement
- Making skills transparent: Recognising vocational skills acquired through workbased learning, 2018
- Striking the right balance: Costs and benefits of apprenticeship
- Work, train, win: work-based learning design and management for productivity gains
- Work-based Learning for Youth at Risk: Getting Employers on Board, 2016
- OECD policy reviews of vocational education and training (VET) and adult learning
- Adult learning and basic skills
- VET country reviews
- Unlocking the potential of migrants through VET
- Work-based learning in school-based VET
- OECD Reviews of Vocational Education and Training, 2023
- Youth entrepreneurship: Policy brief on recent developments in youth entrepreneurship, OECD & European Commission, 2020
