Abstract
Nepal is currently facing significant political instability as the failure to adopt a Constitution has hindered progress in a range of policy areas. Weak industrial relations and other simmering social and economic tensions provide the backdrop to a serious youth employment crisis. Unemployment rates are surprisingly high given that in low-income countries many people have little choice but to engage in economic activities in the absence of social protection. A young person is six times more likely to be unemployed than an adult in Nepal (19 per cent and 3 per cent respectively). For young people who are working, informality is the norm. Over 90 per cent of young workers are in the informal economy. Young people facing bleak employment prospects are leaving the country in large numbers as temporary migration surges. Nepal is becoming one of the largest sending countries in Asia.