Youth and Unemployment: Our Present Problem and a Missed Opportunity

Abstract

Youth and Unemployment:Our Present Problem and a Missed Opportunity Jessika A. Bohlmann, Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu, and Darlington Mushongera Tshepo, a young South African, has faced huge life challenges in the last four years as he has struggled to focus on his studies amid numerous student protests against the hiking of university fees. Despite these challenges, he was determined to complete his undergraduate degree, which he did at the end of 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic persisting and lockdown rules in place, he was content with an online graduation ceremony in March of 2021. With a degree in hand, he entered the job market, expecting to soon get employment and begin a new and better life. Little did Tshepo know that getting a job was not as easy as he had thought. On June 16, Youth Day in South Africa, to his dismay, he heard devastating news in a televised speech, in which President Cyril Ramaphosa was addressing the nation on the commemoration of the 1976 student protests known as the Soweto uprising. Ramaphosa said, "Young people in our country still remain unemployed, and this is a national crisis; more than half of South Africans aged between sixteen and twenty-four are unemployed." This statement hit Tshepo hard. He had believed young people occupied an important place in South Africa, although remaining marginalized. More than four decades have passed since they began struggling to be recognized and have their plight heard, and yet now they find themselves unemployed. Darlington Mushongera caught up with Tshepo at one of the main hardware shops in Johannesburg, holding a placard saying PAINTER. He was one of many frequenting the place in the hope of attracting a client among those coming in to buy building material. Darlington stopped his car, and he was immediately surrounded by youths claiming they could do various home repair and renovation works. Tshepo was the lucky one, as Darlington picked him to do the work needed at his house. As they drove home, Tshepo shared his story. Darlington asked him how much money he made each day and why he had ended up doing this. Tshepo answered, "If you get one client on a single day, you're very lucky; otherwise you go home empty handed." A stone's throw from these young men were young women. Darlington asked Tshepo about them, and he answered, "They're also waiting for clients. [End Page 142] People come to look for someone to do their laundry or clean their homes. Life is so hard, and people are desperate. Any job will do." Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Tshepo waiting for clients. Photo by Darlington Mushongera. As researchers, we understood that unemployment was a problem in South Africa but had not come face to face with the reality of the problem, as demonstrated in Tshepo's story and the stories of many more who wait outside the hardware shop or along the streets, looking for any job. Tshepo's story gets us to think more deeply about the issue of unemployment in South Africa, particularly youth unemployment. As a result of this encounter, we set out to find the causes of unemployment among youth and investigate what the government was doing about it. The results of our research are telling. First, youth unemployment is a reality and a huge challenge. Second, government initiatives fall far short of absorbing most of those willing and able to work. Third, there is a clear mismatch between the skills youth have and existing jobs. Youth employment is a major challenge, not just for South Africa, but for Africa as a whole. A report from a local South African news show reported the youth saying: We, as the youth of today, don't see the freedoms that those youth of 1976 fought for. We still have too much unemployment. If we can actually see everything coming to the youth (better jobs, unemployment rate coming down), then I'd say that June 16—what they fought for—we can actually see it. But we don't have jobs. Each and every day, you have to sell something so that you have something to eat...