South Africa’s Youth Unemployment Dilemma: Whose Baby is it anyway?

Natanya Meyer

doi:10.22610/jebs.v9i1.1557

Abstract

Youth unemployment is a major concern to various different countries, including South Africa, which ranked fourth-worst in the global youth unemployment ratings in 2013 and 2014reaching rates of more than 50 percent. Entrepreneurship development and increased employability through appropriate skills development have been considered as possible solutions to this growing problem. The aim of this study is to determine perceptions of students pertaining their entrepreneurial outlook and perceived employability. Validated Entrepreneurship- and Employability Scales were used to determine entrepreneurial outlook and perceived employability perception. A total of 293 students from a South African University participated in this study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, histograms, Pearson correlation, MANOVA and ANOVA. The findingsof this studyshow that student’sperceptions indicated that if they haveamore entrepreneurial outlook, it could strongly increase their employability. They also do not think that after the completion of their degrees that they would be more employable. A significance difference was found between year level of study, race, age, and perception of entrepreneurial outlook and employability variables of the students.They seem to have a realistic view when it comes to the risk of possible unemployment for some time after graduation. Based on these findings, it is suggested that introducing entrepreneurship training and employability programs (skills development) to students during the completion of their higher education career, could assist in the reduction of youth unemployment in South Africa.

Highlights

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” These wise words were expressed by President Franklin D
This article focuses on the perceptions of a group of students regarding unemployment and the possibility that entrepreneurship training and employability programs might be a solution to the rising issue of youth unemployment
The scale consisted of questions such as: would you consider starting your own business, do you think that becoming an entrepreneur can reduce unemployment; did you get enough entrepreneurship practical and theoretical training during completion of your degree? The Employability Scale (Meyer& Keyser, 2017b) consisted of 4items and was rated on a 6 point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree up to 6 strongly agree)

Summary

Introduction

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” These wise words were expressed by President Franklin D. According to Statistics South Africa (2016), South Africa’s youth (aged 15-24) unemployment rate stood at 54.5 percent, as shown in the 2016third quarter labor force data. South Africa’s youth unemployment rate is calculated as being almost four times that of the subSaharan Africa average (Kane-Berman, 2015). These rates are calculated according to the strict definition of unemployment and include only people who are actively seeking employment but without success. With approximately 1.38 million youths unemployed, South Africa accounts for 1.9 percent of the global youth unemployment rate, but only 0.77 percent of the world’s youth population (Kane-Berman, 2015). This article focuses on the perceptions of a group of students regarding unemployment and the possibility that entrepreneurship training and employability programs might be a solution to the rising issue of youth unemployment

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Conclusion