ILO Policy Brief on Youth Employment in Cambodia

Cambodia has a young population with 39 per cent of the population in 2004 below 15 years of age, down from 43 per cent in 1998. By 2004 the dependency ratio showing the children and elderly as a percentage of the intermediate group was 74 per cent.1 Youth aged 15–24 represented 22 percent of the population that year. Large numbers of young people are entering
the labour force as a result of a baby boom in the 1980s. Measures must be taken to ensure that youth do not add to underemployment in the countryside or lead to higher rates of urban unemployment but instead contribute to growth and development through productive employment.