Abstract
Youth unemployment and underemployment are serious concerns in sub-Saharan Africa, especially given the region’s young population. The barriers young people face stem both from skills deficiencies and from weak fundamentals that constrain job creation more generally in the region. Employment interventions can mitigate some of these barriers. However, our stocktaking of these interventions suggests that existing programs are disproportionately focused on the formal wage sector and do not adequately reflect the reality that most young people work in agriculture, household enterprises, and self-employment and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Finally, better data and evaluation are needed for more effective interventions.
Highlights
Youth employment is a pressing issue in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
While some evidence does show that these transitions can be protracted, much of the data we have reviewed indicates that the conventional 15–24 age group definition is broadly appropriate for sub-Saharan Africa
The findings suggest that employment creation through public works programs and wage subsidies have had limited effect on youth employment in sub-Saharan Africa, the former mostly providing a short-term safety net and the latter limited to a fairly narrow segment of the youth workforce
Summary
Youth employment is a pressing issue in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). One reason is demography. Structural change has been much less important in SSA, with the result that there has been not been significant upgrading of the employment structure (Fox et al 2013).10 Growth in many SSA countries has been driven by commodities and other forces (such as aid) that are not labor-intensive, and do not lead to structural change.11 Young people continue to work more in agriculture than in the other sectors (African Development Bank (AfDB) et al, 2012) and, since agricultural productivity is low (Filmer and Fox, 2014), the prospects for good livelihoods in the sector are poor.
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