Lack of decent jobs, major labour challenge for Sub-Saharan youth

The lack of productive and decent jobs remains the largest labour market challenge for young people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

At 21.9 per cent in 2023, the youth Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) rate in sub-Saharan Africa exceeded the global rate (at 20.4 per cent).

The region is one of only three global regions judged to be “off track” in its SDG commitment (under target 8.6) to lower numbers of young NEETs.

This regional outlook is based on the International Labour Organisation’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 report (GET Youth 2024): Decent work, brighter futures.

The report said young women face significant additional barriers when trying to enter the labour market.

Three in five young NEETs in sub-Saharan Africa were women in 2023, and the gender gap in youth NEET rates was 10 percentage points (at 27 per cent and 16.9 per cent, respectively).

It said the quality of jobs available to young people in sub-Saharan Africa was of a significant concern.

In 2023, nearly three in four (71.7 per cent) of young adult workers (aged 25 to 29) were in a form of work deemed “insecure,” representing a decrease of just 0.6 percentage points over the past 20 years.

It said the youth unemployment rate, at 8.9 per cent in 2023, was 0.6 percentage points below the rate in the pre-pandemic year 2019.

The timid recovery from COVID-19 shocks in the labour market has not been equally beneficial for young men and young women.

The unemployment rate for young women remained, on average, 1.5 percentage points higher than that of young men, and this gap increased since the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period.

It said political instability and conflict had a significant impact on young people in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2022, there were approximately 8.9 million young people living near conflicts, representing a peak over the past two decades.

The report said agriculture remained the primary source of employment for young workers in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 60 per cent of employment in 2021, the highest share of all the world’s regions.

For two decades, the GET Youth reports have striven to provide timely and relevant information on how well young people are doing in their ambitions to attain decent work.

In so doing the report has investigated the where, why and how of young people’s labour market vulnerabilities, and highlighted the policy measures and interventions that aim to support youth job creation and effectively set young people on the pathway to a bright future of work.

As an anniversary edition, GET Youth 2024 looks back on what has been achieved since the dawn of the twenty first century while also looking ahead to what may lay in store for youth employment in an era characterized by crises and uncertainties.