The potential for reducing youth unemployment through informal business development in the eThekwini municipality, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa

Abstract

Youth unemployment is a problem that requires different diagnoses from different stakeholders, and informal business is important for local economic development. However, the youth are not much involved in the informal sector. Youth involvement in the informal sector will help address youth unemployment. This article aims to evaluate the impact of informal business development on reducing youth unemployment in the eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Through in-depth interviews with eThekwini Municipality officials, business support organisations and unemployed youth, assessment of supporting documents and site visits, enough data were collected to support the notion that informal business development can work to address unemployment in the municipality. The findings showed that the informal economy does not have a significant impact on completely mitigating the unemployment problem in the municipality. However, the sector is very important for economic growth and development, as well as job creation, which will begin to alleviate the unemployment problem. Thus both the formal and informal sectors of the economy need to be examined as potentially providing the first steps to achieving the long-term employment goals for the eThekwini Municipality.