A study from Oxford University from last year underlined the importance of providing adequate support to young people who are coming of age during the Covid pandemic.

The report outlines a number of approaches that the authors believe are key to adequately supporting young people during this most difficult of times so that any impact they feel is minimized.

These include greater support for young people to return to school after marriage and/or pregnancy; better acceptance of married adolescents in poverty alleviation strategies; greater protection for informal laborers so that young people have access to good work after the pandemic; and more promotion of women’s access to safe public spaces.

“We need to be aware of, and prepare for these measures now, not in several months’ time,” the researchers say. “Otherwise this unprecedented crisis threatens to set back decades of progress and blight the futures of the generation now growing up under the shadow of COVID.”

Failing at the task

Sadly, it seems that we are largely failing in this task, at least according to research from the University of Cambridge, which argues that “policy inertia” has resulted in a paucity of support for young people during the pandemic.

Instead, the authors believe that policies that were failing before the pandemic were often simply repackaged and rolled out afresh during the pandemic.  The report suggests that policymakers need to stop knee-jerk responses and look at longer-term solutions that are specifically aimed at young people.

The authors highlight that one in six young people have been made redundant since the pandemic began, which has a significant impact on their wellbeing.  This impact was in large part due to the preponderance of jobs among young people being in sectors, such as retail and tourism, that were most affected by the lockdown measures.

“Young people face distinct challenges which disadvantage them compared to older adults when it comes to finding work post-pandemic,” the researchers say.

“These include less work experience and financial capital, weaker social networks, and higher levels of in-work poverty. They are also much more likely to have to make ends meet via informal cash-in-hand work.”

Lack of support

While many countries introduced a form of furlough scheme for workers who would have been laid off, this wasn’t something that helped school leavers who would be looking to enter the workforce.

Sadly, the authors believe that this generation could face a prolonged period of unemployment that makes it that much harder to re-enter the labor market.  Indeed, they may even be overtaken by the generation below them who face no such burdens.

“Young people have been forced to remain at home, stuck with their parents, cut off from friends and partners,” the researchers explain. “Anxiety, stress and depression skyrocketed among young people around the world.”

“Repeated outbreaks in areas from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America will deplete household savings, shrink opportunities and diminish the aspirations of generation lockdown.”

Despite this, very few countries deployed policy responses that were specifically tailored towards young people.  Without such measures, however, intergenerational inequalities are likely to be further exacerbated as countries recover from the pandemic.

Youth backing

What measures do exist often revolve around getting young people into work as quickly as possible.  The authors argue for more active labor market policies, however, which could provide support to help boost the employability of young people.  This could include jobseeker counseling and mental health support.

“Holistic policy responses require health and non-health government departments and ministries to work together more effectively,” the researchers say. “The pandemic forced them to work together. These new networks and cross-departmental links need to be maintained.”

“Coordination should extend outside government to NGOs, trade unions, employer organizations, policymakers and young people themselves, in order to design better quality and more effective post-pandemic support for young people who have faced 18 months of social and economic chaos.”