Africa's continued growth in youth employment is creating concern over the continent's ability to use its young people's potential for an economic transformation. Right now Africa has too many young workers and not enough jobs for them. There are over 200 million youths that make up Africa's population which is abut 21%.
Africa is the second fastest growing continent , however it has the worlds lowest school enrollment and quality. Due to this, it is leaving over 90 million teenagers with little or no skills and struggling to find a low-paying job. Since so many teens are leaving the education system early , they are not learning basic literacy and numeracy skills, which makes them under-qualified or have qualifications that do not meet the needs of the work field. This is a problem because many teens in Africa have to either provide for or support their families.
Today, 72% of Africa's youth population lives on US$2 a day. This is a good example of how absurd the amount Africans are getting paid is. In America, nobody would work if all we got paid was two dollars a day. Also, two dollars a day wouldn't get anyone the things they need to survive, so how are the Africans still surviving?
The people most affected by youth unemployment is not only the "youth" but children and women also. According to my article, "The paradox of rapid economic growth lingers with poverty and inequalities devouring Africa's youth and women especially." Women have always been know to stay at home to care for the family and its house. This prevents a majority of the women in Africa the ability to get an education and find a real job. It is said that women work twice as long as men do for unpaid work in the house. Half of the unemployed youth in Africa are women.
The pace of job creation must continue to accelerate to keep up with the pace of the 10-12 million young laborers entering the work field every year. My article states that " Policymakers across then continent and development partners are creating solutions to curb the youth employment crisis." Whether this succeeds or fails is going to be based upon how effective the young people make themselves by using the talents they have and fulfilling the ambitions they hope to achieve.
Is Africa's unemployment rate low because they don't have enough jobs for the youth or do the youth not have enough skills to work? I have read that Africa's schools are very weak and poor and don't have the teachers and sources to teach the children. Because of this the youth comes out of school not knowing anything making it impossible to get a job. Also, the youth just drops out of school making them discouraged to go out and look for a job.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the youth in Africa find no need in learning these basic skills in school such as reading and writing, etc. Due to their lack in skills , it does make it more difficult to find a job. However , there aren't many jobs as it is in Africa. So I believe that the unemployment rate is low, due to a combination of both. If you are skill-less you cannot get a job, but on the other hand, you may have the skills needed, but there still may not be an available job for you.
ReplyDeleteI agree! It defiantly works both ways. I feel as if is isn't fair for the youth because they are not taught these skills in the first place. Thus, leading them in a life that they think they can never be successful in.
DeleteI too agree. It definitely does work both ways. The lack of skills they have may be the bigger issue but Africa does have very little jobs. So even if you do have great working ethics and the skills for it, there still may not be a job available which leads you to be unemployed, which causes the unemployment rate to rise.
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