Young people are disproportionately affected by the COVID‑19 crisis.According to ILO, a total of 178 million young workers around the world, more than four in ten young people employed globally, were working in hard-hit sectors when the crisis began.

Almost 77 per cent (or 328 million) of the world’s young workers were in informal jobs, compared with around 60 per cent of adult workers (aged 25 and above). The youth informality rate ranges from 32.9 per cent in Europe and Central Asia to 93.4 per cent in Africa. Even before the crisis, more than 267 million young people were not in employment, education or training (NEET), including almost 68 million unemployed young people.