Enhanced job-matching for youth expected to raise quality of work, productivity in Asia

ONE key to improving productivity in Asia is to more intensively target the working youth and better match them to higher-quality jobs, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

“The region’s developing economies are home to over 580 million young people ages 15–29 years. Their energy, skills, and expertise are needed to power growth and innovation as economies in the region transform, grow older, and seek to address climate change,” the ADB said in a report.

“Yet over 80% of youth who work in the region do so informally, and one in four young workers are moderately or extremely poor. Working youth are often stuck in precarious, low-quality, low-paid jobs,” it added.

In many Asian countries,  youth unemployment rate is two to three times more than the adult rate, it said.

Better job matching “reduces the time needed for job seekers to identify vacancies and for employers to fill them. It also improves the quality of the match so that young people obtain jobs suited to their capabilities and aspirations, and employers acquire the right talent,” the ADB said.

The matching process can include job preparation and search, as well as skills training, social networking, and post-placement activities.

“When job matching is linked to other services, this tends to help youth with their nonlinear transitions, reach disadvantaged youth cohorts, and strengthen matches for improved job quality,” it said.

Digital technology will also help further access, such as through online job-matching platforms.

“Young job seekers gain remote and convenient access to a larger and more relevant pool of jobs. Complementary support can easily be linked. Employers benefit from reaching more prospective talent as well as other recruitment services. Providers leverage scalability,” it said. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson