Global youth unemployment crisis stems from neoliberal education systems failing to equip workers for precarious, AI-driven economies
Original framing: “Young people need more than qualifications to prepare them for work” — The Conversation - Global
Youth in the Global South—where unemployment rates exceed 60% in some regions—describe 'skills training' as a neocolonial tool to prepare them for precarious labor, not empowerment. Disabled youth, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ communities face systemic barriers that 'soft skills' cannot overcome, yet their voices are absent from policy debates. Movements like *Black Lives Matter at School* or *Queer Youth Strike* demand education systems that address intersectional oppression, not just 'employability.'
The youth unemployment crisis is not a 'skills gap' but a symptom of neoliberal education and labor systems that prioritize credentialism, automation, and precarity over human flourishing.
Historical parallels—from post-2008 austerity to 1970s deindustrialization—reveal that such crises emerge when policymakers blame individuals while corporations and financial elites restructure economies for profit. Indigenous knowledge systems, Nordic social democracy, and youth-led movements offer viable alternatives, yet they are sidelined by a media narrative that depoliticizes the issue. The solution lies in *decolonizing education*, *redistributing automation profits*, and *centering marginalized voices*—not in training youth to endure a broken system. As the *trickster* Coyote might ask: *Who benefits from framing youth as 'unprepared' while automating their futures away?