first economic growth is an absolute prerequisite for providing employment opportunities and only an expanding economy can provide jobs for a growing labour force however most pacific economies are growing very slowly and cannot keep pace with the increasing number of young people entering their labour forces every year additionally young people are also less experienced and thus face structural disadvantages compared with older cohorts in an already squeezed labour market second in most pacific island developing countries there is a great mismatch between skills gained through the education system and the skills required to be employed given the country s economic structures ilo a world bank while the curriculum of most educational institutions prepares students for jobs in the formal sector there are very few jobs in that sector