Youth unemployment remains critical in Latin America and the Caribbean, reaching 12.5%, almost three times the adult rate, warned the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Thursday in the presentation of its latest report, which revealed some progress in the labor market but noted that structural gaps remain.
“The labor participation rate for adults (in 2025) was 67% compared to 48% for young people; and employment was 64% and 42%, respectively. Youth unemployment remains critical, reaching 12.5%, almost three times the rate for adults,” said Gerson Martínez, labor economics specialist at the ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Furthermore, during a videoconference, he indicated that youth unemployment is combined with “high levels of informality,” which reaches 56% among young people, while among adults it was 42.8%.
The report, entitled “Labor Outlook 2025 Latin America and the Caribbean,” points to a sustained decline in the number of young people who are neither studying nor working for pay, a trend that has become particularly pronounced in the post-pandemic period, especially among young women.
On the other hand, although recent indicators show somewhat more favorable trends in female employment, this convergence is progressing at an “insufficient pace” and gender gaps persist.
In the first half of 2025, the male participation rate was 75% and the female rate was almost 53%, while the employment rates were 71% and 49%, respectively.
The report details that the 1 percentage point increase in the average employment rate between 2019 and 2025 in the region is explained by 0.7 points for men and 1.4 points for women.
“Although this convergence is a significant step forward, it is still insufficient to close the structural gender gap,” said Martínez, referring to the need to overcome gender stereotypes so that more women are in paid employment, something that also has great potential for the countries’ economies.
Stable growth
The ILO indicated that Latin America and the Caribbean recorded its third consecutive year of stable growth in 2025, with GDP expanding by 2.4%, similar to 2024, but below the global average (3.2%).
As a result, labor indicators also showed a trend of moderate growth and relative stability, with labor force participation at 63.3%, virtually unchanged from 2024, while the employment rate was 59.6%, 0.4% higher than last year.
In this regard, and coupled with increased demand for employment, the region recorded an unemployment rate of 5.8% in the first half of 2025, the lowest in recent records, confirming the post-pandemic recovery, “although this does not imply substantive progress in structural terms.”
