GENERATION NI/NI: LATIN AMERICA’S LOST YOUTH
Recent surveys have revealed
that 20 million young people
in the region are neither
working nor studying.
How does the region
economically and politically
reengage a generation?
By José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs
The youth unemployment rate today in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at a remarkable 15 percent. These 8 mil- lion unemployed are part of what may be called a global “lost generation” of young people at risk of social exclusion—all of whom lack opportunities, resources and
access to formal labor markets.
In 2011, 75 million out of the 200 million unemployed people in the world were between the ages
