As South Africa commemorates Youth Day on June 16, the country continues to struggle with the burgeoning problem of unemployment in its highly youthful population – with the recent youth unemployment statistics in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey showing that nearly one in two youth is unemployed.
Spanning the age group of 15 to 34-year-olds, the data from Statistics South Africa, which was released in May 2023, shows that the total number of unemployed youth stands at 4.9 million, as a result of a 1.1% increase from the last quarter of 2022, to 46.5% for the first quarter of the year. In comparison, the country’s overall official unemployment rate stands at 32.9%.
When delving deeper into the data, this shows that “youth aged 15-24 years and 25-34 years recorded the highest unemployment rates of 62.1% and 40.7% respectively”. Furthermore, approximately 3.7 million (36.1%) out of 10.2 million young people aged 15-24 years were not in employment, education, or training.
The Chief Executive of youth development NGO Afrika Tikkun, Onyi Nwaneri, believes the level of youth unemployment is “cause for grave concern”.
“Not only are young people excluded from participating in the labor market, denying them their right to work towards income security, they are also unable to lead lives of dignity,” she said.
She notes that labor supply and demand are out of sync, highlighting that the labor market has failed to create jobs for unskilled youth, which can mainly be attributed to a deteriorating education system.
On the latter point, the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2021 found that 81% of Grade 4 learners, generally in the 10-year-old category, are “struggling to read for comprehension”.
This data places South Africa at the tail end of the rankings among the 57 countries that participated. The research for South Africa was conducted by the University of Pretoria.
Commenting on these results, Education Minister Angie Motshekga said:
“Our education is indeed fragile in this regard, as learners have not yet benefitted from the many years of schooling; this fragility was exacerbated by the global interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
What is South Africa doing about it?
Earlier this year, during his annual state of the nation address, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the concern around the high levels of youth unemployment in the country, as well as the initiatives under way to address this.
The approach is multi-pronged and covers regulatory, financing and skills upliftment programs.
These include employment tax incentives to hire young people, amending legislation to reduce regulatory barriers, providing financing and funding through entities like the Small Enterprise Finance Agency, The National Skills Fund, the Social Employment Fund, and the National Youth Development Agency.
In addition, companies are incentivised to provide graduates with employment through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, which aims to create jobs and strengthen livelihoods.
“Unemployment among young South Africans is a national crisis that demands urgent, innovative and coordinated solutions. It is therefore essential that we implement a comprehensive plan to create no fewer than 2 million jobs for young people within the next decade,” President Cyril Ramaphosa.
An online platform, SAYouth.mobi, has been created for youth to “access opportunities for learning and earning” and there is a focus on revitalising the National Youth Service and increasing artisan trainees enrolling in Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges.
Economic growth needed
NYDA chief executive Waseem Carrim said South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates and youth unemployment rates globally, describing it as a full blown national crisis.
He added: “The status quo will not self-correct – a big push is required to achieve a higher equilibrium. South Africa spends significantly (across public and private institutions) on education and skills development, with very low returns on investment leading to poor impact. Youth unemployment is the greatest concern, with two-thirds of the more than one million young people entering the labour market each year not in any form of employment, education or training.”
“The only solution to unemployment in the long term is to achieve higher and more inclusive economic growth. If economic reforms are not implemented to address the binding constraints on economic growth, employment will not grow and additional social spending will not be sustainable. However, in the short term, public employment and social spending act as an important buffer to provide work experience and pathways for young people,” he added.
This year, South Africans commemorate the 47th Youth Day, honouring the bravery of the youngsters who led a peaceful protest in 1976 against the compulsory introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in high schools during apartheid that resulted in a full-scale confrontation with police and many fatalities.
