Abstract
In this paper, we study on a comparative basis the school-to-work transition of young women and young men in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and we examine how this has evolved over recent years, based on the data collected by Demographic and Health Surveys. We examine educational attainments and the nature of early jobs young people are able to obtain, as well as considering their relationship to marriage and fertility outcomes, factors which are likely to be particularly relevant for young women. A pooled regression analysis shows that educational levels have increased substantially and gender gaps have narrowed in most countries. Access to better jobs has improved much more slowly with unchanging gender gaps in most countries, so that agriculture is still the dominant sector of employment for most young men and women. We model correlates of key educational outcomes and access to different types of jobs those controlling for individual- and household-level characteristics, including marital status, presence of children and wealth. Attaining a high level of education is unsurprisingly critical for access to the best jobs and is also associated with young women delaying marriage and childbearing.
Highlights
1 Introduction Youth employment is a major challenge across the world, and especially pressing in sub-Saharan Africa, the one world region where the youth population continues to grow
The young people in sub-Saharan Africa—as elsewhere in the world—are becoming increasingly educated over time, though levels remain low compared to other world regions
Job creation is a major challenge in Mariara et al IZA Journal of Development and Migration (2018) 8:16 sub-Saharan African countries though urgently required to avoid wasting the opportunity offered by their youth populations
Summary
Youth employment is a major challenge across the world, and especially pressing in sub-Saharan Africa, the one world region where the youth population continues to grow. We focus on six countries in Eastern and West Africa at different levels of development: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.1 We focus mostly on the key questions of educational attainment and access to specific types of job for young women and men, which are clearly strongly interrelated.
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