EXTENDED SUMMARY

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsen the challenges faced by young people in the labour market, education and health. Despite public support and regulation, young labour market entrants and young students have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Also, mental health problems have increased more among youth than adults. The so-called “COVID-19 generation” or “Quarantine generation” has had to contend with new aspects of inequality in terms of employment, education and health. Firstly, young workers have experienced significant employment and income losses as a result of the reduction in working hours. The loss of employment of 34 million young people, which occurred during the pandemic in 2020, did not reach the pre-pandemic level in the recovery period in 2021. In addition, youth employment losses and the flows out of the labour force have caused the NEET rate to rise rapidly all over the world. It becomes extremely difficult for young people to make a decision to seek a job again and overcome skill losses in the medium and long term. Secondly, the COVID-19 has led to the complete or partial closure of schools at all levels of education, from pre-school to tertiary education. Sharp declines in household income and the transition of educational institutions to distance education have made it difficult to access education and training. This outcome is predicted to cause both skill corrosion and lifetime income loss for young people. Thirdly, the effects of the pandemic on youth health have resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of young people with mental health problems compared to the pre-pandemic period in many countries. The pandemic has caused more frequent symptoms of anxiety and depression among youth than adults.

At national level, regulations have been made to address the unequal and disproportionate problems faced by young people in the fields of employment, education and health. In OECD countries, regulations such as youth strategies, income supports, job protection plans, recruitment subsidies, strengthening public employment services have been put forward. In many OECD countries, policies such as providing free internet connection to young people who have difficulty in accessing distance education, and distributing computers or tablets to students have been implemented in order to eliminate the inequalities of opportunity in the field of education. In terms of mental health, youth mental health services have been expanded and new funds have been created in order to ensure that institutional mental health support is not interrupted in twenty OECD countries. However, it has been concluded that these supports are both more effective in high-income countries and are beneficial for a temporary period. In other words, national policy makers have had limited responses to youth mental health. Finally, it should be noted that although the regulations for young people who can be described as “lost” or “injured” due to COVID-19 are considered affirmative, it is difficult to reach definite conclusions about the effectiveness of these regulations yet.