Impact of skills development on youth unemployment: A fractional-order mathematical model

The global impact of high unemployment rates has significant economic and social consequences. To overcome this, various skill development programs are initiated by governments of developing countries. But the problem of unemployment is still increasing day by day. So, there is a pressing necessity to revise the current policies and models. Therefore, this research proposes a fractional-order mathematical model that examines the impact of various skill development programs for youths. The proposed model incorporates fractional-order differential equations to capture the complex dynamics of unemployment. The main objective of this research is to examine the impact of training programs aimed at enhancing the abilities of unemployed individuals, with the ultimate goal of reducing the overall unemployment rate. The reproduction number is calculated using the next-generation matrix approach, which is crucial for both the existence and stability analysis of the equilibria. When the reproduction number is less than 1, the employment-free equilibrium is locally and globally asymptotically stable. The employment-persistence equilibrium point emerges only when the reproduction number exceeds one. We also explore the possibility of transcritical bifurcation and investigate the impact of skill development on the unemployment rate. We conduct numerical simulations to validate our analytical findings, further supporting our qualitative conclusions. These simulations help illustrate the unemployment dynamics and confirm the stability and behavior of the equilibrium points predicted by the mathematical model.