Youth unemployment is the situation of young people who are looking for a job, but cannot find a job, with the age range being that defined by the United Nations as 15–24 years old. An unemployed person is defined as someone who does not have a job but is actively seeking work. In order to qualify as unemployed for official and statistical measurement, the individual must be without employment, willing and able to work, of the officially designated "working age" (often from the teens to the mid-60s) and actively searching for a position. Youth unemployment rates tend to be higher than the adult rates in every country in the world.

Youth unemployment has largely been described as a major, if not the primary catalyst for revolution, political and societal upheaval, and conflict towards the system and state. It has historically been associated with upheaval and change or overthrow of the political establishment and mass societal change. With conflicts such as the Arab Spring, Russian civil war and the French revolution all largely being caused by large scale youth unemployment.