www.adapt.it, 4 June 2012
Generating Jobs for the Youths: A Priority
Agenda for Africa
Mesele Araya
Although the pace of its economic performance has been slowed down by the spill over of the
global crisis and the Arab Spring influence, Africa as a continent has been enjoying some degree
of economic growth over the last few years. New data just released by the African Economic
Outlook, which administered its annual conference in Arusha (Tanzania) on May 28, 2012, in
collaboration with the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (UNECA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and
the OECD Development Centre, indicates that Africa achieved 3.4% economic growth in 2011,
but down 1.6% from 2010. Hoping that the North African economy will recover soon from the
Arab Spring influence and sustained progress in all other regions, the continent is expected to
register a growth rate of 4.5% in 2012 and 4.8% in 2013.
Nevertheless, the Outlook cautioned that there are more challenges on the other side that may
curve the expected growth (to end fruitlessly) unless a coordinated actions are taken in curbing
the existing youth employment crisis in the continent. The disclosed data show that of these 40
million of young job seekers, 22 million have given up on finding a job, and many of them are
young females. Youth currently in general constitutes 60 percent of the unemployed people in
the continent (see Table 1, for some selected countries). Indeed, things are not ended here, but
what makes them more demanding is that given the current trend, the number of youth in the
continent is expected to double by 2045, implying that “the continent’s labour force will be 1
billion strong by 2040.” In view of that with the jobless growth at hand, youth unemployment
can be an emerging threat for both the economic growth itself and social cohesion of the
continent at large.
To be more specific, it is vital to see the labour market outcomes of some selected countries.
For instance, although Nigeria achieved a growth rate of 6.9 percent in 2011, it was not able to
put its young workers in decent work, and ended the year with a jobless youth of 37.7%.
Absence of job for the youth is also a knotty social problem in Sierra Leone with a rate of 60%,
the highest rate in the West Africa sub-region. Additionally, in Congo Democratic Republic,
more than 70% of the young have no jobs. Even it was specified that the country does not yet
have a precise youth employment policy. As the consequences of this, of the 9000 university
graduates each year, fewer than 100 find jobs in the Congolese labour market. The other Congo
(Congo Republic) is not also unique on this regard as its 25% youths were jobless by the end of
2011. Unemployment remains a crucial problem in Senegal too, especially for the young people
whose employment rate is 25% below that of adults. In the same fashion, in Benin there are too
few jobs for the youth and employers are so much reluctant to hire new entrants to the labour
market. In Burkina Faso where the private sector is very poorly developed and structurally
unable to absorb job seekers, young people are hopeless and account for 80% of the jobless. It
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was also added that it is very common to find about 40% of young first-time job-seekers have
inadequate qualifications for the labour market in Niger and 30% in Gabon. In urban areas of
Togo as well, unemployment affected 21.4% of young people in 2011. The same history is there
in Guinea Bisssau, a country which is characterized by both political instability and a mismatch
between trainings of the youth and the country's economic needs.
Most east African countries are not also unique to this event. For instance, youth unemployment
in Kenya constitutes 70% of total unemployment. In Tanzania too, the host of the annual
conference, youth unemployment is almost twice the national unemployment rate and affects
unequally urban youth and young women in particular. Ethiopia has also failed to generate
satisfactory employment opportunities for the youth although it has shown a considerable
progress towards some MDGs. It was also remarked that with an estimated 42% youth
unemployment, skill deficit leads to working poverty for most young Rwandans.
Noticeably, youth unemployment is also a major issue in the North African economies, and
many believe that it was one of the driving forces of the 2010/11 revolution in the region. More
particularly, youth unemployment is a very serious problem in Algeria, with a rate of 21.5%. In
Egypt too, by the end of 2011, unemployment, especially among the young, had risen to a high
level. Young people have also faced uncertain job prospects with unemployment rate higher than
the national average in Morocco. In a nutshell, the region is currently suffering from 27.8% of
youth unemployment, especially with high incidence on young women.
With a rate of above 48%, South Africa has also failed to make effective use of its youth. In the
same way, Mauritius, the continent’s richest nation in terms of social-and human-capital
progress, has proved a 21.9% youth unemployment rate in 2011. In Comoros too, young people
of working age are faced with widespread unemployment affecting about 45% of their age
group. This kind of unemployment is especially said to be structural that affects all young
people invariably, whether skill or not. Moreover, in Mozambique, the overall unemployment
rate stands at 27% and many of the new entrants into the labour market are forced into marginal
jobs in the informal economy, with little prospect of reliable employment. It is not also strange to
see over 50% of the 15-24 age groups are jobless in the Swaziland economy while 63% of the
urban young people are out of the world of work in Zambia. Regretfully, what makes matters
much worse is that even some countries do not have youth employment policy and no efforts of
making data available on how many of the youths are looking for a job (Say for example, Eritrea,
São Tomé & Príncipe).
In effect, if the situation continues with current trend, it will not be long for Africa to face a
dysfunctional labour market and hopeless young citizens. It was based on these facts that in his
speech in the AEO’s annual conference, Prof. Mthuli Ncube (Vice-President of AfDB) said,
“The continent is experiencing jobless growth. That is an unacceptable reality on a continent
with such an impressive pool of youth, talent and creativity." It was also pointed out that now is
the right time that Africa has to “turn its human capital into economic opportunity”. To quote
once again: "Without urgent action to modernise their economies, African countries risk wasting
the tremendous potential offered by their youth”. In this respect, job creation for the youth is an
urgent priority for the African countries. This implies that generating green jobs must be put at
the forefront of any labour market consideration if the dream of Africa is really to promote
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inclusive and efficiency-driven economies in line with current aspiration prevailing in the
continent.
Table 1. Recent rate of (Youth) unemployment for selected African Countries
Country
Youth unemployment rate (%) Unemployment rate (%)
Nigeria
South Africa
Egypt
Algeria
Botswana
Comoros
Congo democratic republic
Congo republic
37.7
48
Djibouti
Gabon
Ghana
Gambia
Guinea Besu
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mozambique
30
25
40
30
15.4
59.9
21.9
-
21.5
44.5
70
42
23.9
23.9
11.8
10
17.6
14.3
16
50
16
7.9
27
Namibia
51.2
Sierra Leone
60
Rwanda
42
Sudan
22
11
Swaziland
50
Source: Compiled from the African Economic Outlook report, May 2012
In considering as part of the solution, the Outlook suggested that as the public sector can no
longer absorb new labour market entrants, African governments have to make a policy shift
towards generating jobs in the private sector and promoting self-employability by “providing the
right conditions for businesses of all sizes to grow and expand their workforce.” Many also
believe that since in most countries failure of education to equip the young with the required skill
has been blamed for the youth employment failure, revisiting the school-to-work transition path
of the African youth could also be a fundamental approach in tackling the problem at its root. By
hook or by crook, putting the youth at the hub, this is highest time that African governments
must reset policy agenda towards generating decent jobs for the youths and inclusive growth for
all. Or else, beyond the dysfunctional labour market, there is a risk of increased political
instability and losing social cohesion that may cost the continent a lot, as has recently evidenced
by the Arab Spring!
Mesele Araya
PhD Student in the International PhD school of Human Capital Formation and Labour Relations,
University of Bergamo, ADAPT-CQIA
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