The number of unemployed 15 to 24- year-olds has risen sharply in the past 10 years, leaving about one-third of the world's young people without jobs or in abject poverty, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said yesterday.

The number of unemployed 15 to 24- year-olds has risen sharply in the past 10 years, leaving about one-third of the world's young people without jobs or in abject poverty, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said yesterday.

In a report on "Global Employment Trends for Youth", the ILO warned that global economic growth was failing the young. It said about 400million "new and better" jobs had to be created worldwide to resolve the problem.

People in the 15 to 24 age group are three times as likely to be unemployed as older adults, especially in developing countries where they represent a larger proportion of the labour force, it said.

The number of unemployed youths, who are one of the most economically productive age groups in society, rose by 15 percent to 85million between 1995 and last year, said to the ILO. About 300 million youngsters are living on less than $2 a day, it said.

"Despite increased economic growth, the inability of economies to create enough decent and productive jobs is hitting the world's young especially hard," said ILO director general Juan Somavia.

"This worrying trend threatens to damage the future economic prospects of one of the world's greatest assets - our young men and women," he said. - Sapa-AFP