The five years since the global financial crisis began have seen youth unemployment rates explode upwards in most Western economies, joining the already high rates in their emerging counterparts. Those starting out tend not to have the experience employers are after, supporting the adage that it is easier to find a job when you are in one. The difficulties of young people leaving school for a world that offers ever more limited job opportunities are highlighted at a time when more than 75 million young people can’t find jobs and countless more are underemployed.

Investing in opportunities for youth is not only a critical development issue but also a growth strategy for businesses around the world. Rising to this challenge is Hilton Worldwide which has commissioned a white paper titled, Creating Opportunities for Youth in Hospitality, from the International Youth Foundation (IYF), which actively highlights solutions to youth joblessness that the global hospitality sector is uniquely positioned to provide.

This white paper and Hilton Worldwide leadership provide a critical foundation for how hospitality companies can respond to youth development strategically, while also supporting their business goals. It spotlights the economic and social struggles facing the world’s youth and the key issues that need to be addressed to solve these challenges. Leveraging insights gained through its partnership with Hilton Worldwide, IYF also presents the hospitality industry with a roadmap for action that focuses on creating career pathways for this emerging workforce while also meeting critical industry-wide hiring needs.

According to IYF, there are few industries whose resources, expertise and career pathways are as relevant to addressing the challenges facing young people today, and whose business and expansion relies as heavily on a trained workforce in every region of the world. The travel and tourism sector, which alone employs 255 million people globally, is expected to generate 73 million new jobs by 2022. Christopher J. Nassetta, President and CEO, Hilton Worldwide says, “We have a tremendous opportunity to prevent a lost generation of young people by helping them acquire the life skills and job training they need to be successful in the workplace and beyond. As a global citizen and a leader in one of the largest industries in the world, we have a business imperative and responsibility to develop solutions that preserve our collective futures.”

The Hilton Worldwide has also launched Bright Blue Futures, a global commitment to youth development around the world led by its flagship Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand. Hilton Worldwide is also supporting IYF in developing a set of global reporting tools, including a Global Youth Wellbeing Index and Hospitality Industry Impact Framework, that directly address the paper’s call for accountability and instruments to assess the condition of youth over time. These two organisations recognise that youth unemployment is a massive waste of resource, a ticking time bomb and is one of the most important issues we are all facing.

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