The Role of Informal Labour Market Conditions and Transferrable Competences on Informal Employments for Secondary School Graduates in Kigoma District, Tanzania

Adam Mnyavanu ,Sotco Claudius Komba ,J Msinde

doi:10.7176/ejbm/13-2-05

Abstract

Secondary school graduate output in Tanzania has enormously increased without a proper placement plan in the labour market. Specifically, the paper delineates the differences in informal labour market conditions and transferrable competences between urban and rural secondary school graduates; presents an examination of informal employments for secondary school graduates; and denotes the impact of transferrable competences and informal labour market conditions on secondary school graduates’ informal employment. A cross-sectional study design was employed to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive results showed trading, fishing, transportation, mechanics, food vending, palm oil processing and farming to be among main informal employments in which secondary school graduates are engaged. Mann-Whitney U test showed that there were significant differences in the effect of explanatory variables between urban and rural secondary school graduates. Binary Logistic Regression analysis showed that 8 variables namely, informal labour market accessibility, financial capital, social networks, labour market legal framework, self-efficacy, interpersonal relation, entrepreneurship, and farming competences had significant influence on informal employments of secondary school graduates. The results from focus group discussions and key informant interviews were consistent with the findings from the quantitative data. It is thus concluded that informal labour market conditions and transferable competences have an influence on informal employment of secondary school graduates. Therefore, adjustments of informal labour market conditions and transferable competences could be an effective tool of expanding informal employments for secondary school graduates in the informal labour market. The findings emphasise on the need for alerting Local Government Authorities, labour offices, employment agencies, and Non-Governmental Organisations to adjust and re-organize informal labour market conditions and improve transferable competences for secondary school graduates, and hence, improve chances for the graduates getting informal employment. Keywords: Informal labour market conditions, transferable competences, informal employment, secondary school graduates. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-2-05 Publication date: January 31 st 2021

Highlights

Informal employments, despite many challenges against them, offer chances for work to millions of employment seekers from all lifestyles around the world; the educated and uneducated, young and old, rich and poor, and people with special needs get such employments
The results section presents findings, analysis, and discussions on the four specific objectives of this paper. These include identifying informal employment for secondary school graduates based on places of living, examining differences in transferrable competences and informal labour market conditions between urban and rural secondary school graduates, and determining the impact of transferrable competences and informal labour market conditions on employment status of secondary school graduates, that is, employed or not employed
The findings provide a trend on the way agriculture, fish industry, palm oil processing and trading activities are distributed between urban and rural secondary school graduates

Summary

Introduction

Despite many challenges against them, offer chances for work to millions of employment seekers from all lifestyles around the world; the educated and uneducated, young and old, rich and poor, and people with special needs get such employments. According to ILO (2019), the informal employment market constitutes a larger share of total employments in the developing and emerging countries with 73% of all non-agricultural employments in developing and 59% in emerging economies. The definition of Informal employment adopted in this study is consistent with the clarification of International Conference of Labour Statistician (ICLS) ILO (2003). Informal employment is defined as any kind of unregulated employment which is not subject to income taxation, national labour legislation, and social protection benefits such as severance pay, advance notice of dismissal, and paid annual or sick leave. Informal employments are all informal jobs carried out in the informal sector enterprises, formal and households during a given reference period (ILO, 2003). The informal employments involve; employers and employees working in their own enterprises, contributing family workers, informal cooperative producers, informal paid domestic workers, and goods and service producers for own house use

Methods

Results

Conclusion