But the dire employment situation for young people across Africa continues to snuff out their potential. According to the African Development Bank, in 2015, one-third of Africa’s then 420 million young people between 15 and 35 years old were unemployed, another third were vulnerably employed, and only 1 in 6 was in wage employment.
Although Africa has the lowest unemployment rate globally on paper among youth ages 15 to 24 (10.6 percent in 2021, according to the International Labor Organization), the majority of Africa’s youth work informally, and many are underemployed or remain in poverty despite working due to low wages and the lack of a social safety net, making it difficult to compare African countries to more advanced economies.
The African Development bank reports that while 10 million to 12 million youth enter the workforce in Africa each year, only 3 million formal jobs are created annually. African youth have no choice but to work, because most countries on the continent have little or no social protection. According to the African Development Bank, it is therefore common to see humanities and social sciences graduates driving taxis in Algiers and Cameroonian engineers ferrying passengers on commercial motorcycles in Douala.
Africa’s youth employment problem is a global problem. The world can’t achieve and sustain global development with a large segment of youth alienated and unprepared to lead their continent and the world. Hordes of struggling African youth will continue to migrate en masse to developed countries. And foreign investors can’t be assured of peaceful business climates in Africa, as poverty and inequality fuel looting, insurgencies, and terrorist activity on the continent.
Studies have highlighted mismatches between the skills African students obtain at school and those required by employers. African governments and development partners have therefore attempted to address the employment challenge, mainly by implementing skills development programs for employment in high-priority sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing, and promoting entrepreneurship in these areas. Youth enrolled in such programs learn technical and vocational skills, as well as other life skills to help them find employment and run their own businesses.
African societies have long valued professions like medicine, law, and business, while creative fields such as writing, art, music, drama, and fashion are regarded as hobbies.
Africa’s youth employment crisis has been a long time in the making. An adequate solution to this problem requires addressing its root cause: the lack of job creation in many professional fields. Africa’s slow pace of development is not the only reason for its limited range of jobs.
African societies have for a long time valued a few professional fields to the exclusion of many others and have therefore not created ample jobs in less popular fields. Fields such as medicine, law, business, and economics are highly regarded, so parents push bright children to pursue courses in these areas. Many students who do not initially get to study such subjects later pursue work in related areas, both for the prestige and because jobs are more abundant in these fields.
Creative fields such as writing, art, music, drama, and fashion are often regarded as hobbies. Many African parents discourage or prevent their children from pursuing careers in these fields. It’s little wonder that such renowned African writers as Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Tsitsi Dangarembga all initially studied medicine.
To reverse the continent’s employment woes, Africans would need to begin appreciating the utility of all careers. African governments must introduce policies that shift the educational focus from passing exams to exploring a degree’s actual applications to society. African governments, together with the private sector, must actively create jobs related to all professional fields. Development partners can advise African countries on creating jobs in less popular fields, because their countries have successfully employed their talent in such fields.
The large numbers of graduating psychology students should not feel compelled to find jobs in other fields. Governments can introduce policies that mandate hiring psychologists at all schools. Like their Western counterparts, young African children and older students can’t always turn to family members and friends in difficult moments. They need the emotional support of a trained professional at such times.
Even older adults in Africa appear to need the counseling services of psychologists. As a substitute for these services, they consult pastors and find solace in church services. The pastoring profession has proliferated across Africa as a result, but the consolation Africans receive from church is an inadequate substitute for the professional care trained mental health workers provide.
Development partners, private foundations, and foreign companies (as part of their corporate social responsibility) can also help African nations create jobs in other professional fields by building public institutions such as libraries, art galleries, and music conservatories across the continent, and funding art workshops and music lessons. Libraries are scarce across Africa. Kenya, with a population of 55.3 million, has just 64 public libraries, while Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country with a population of 212.7 million, has an estimated 316 public libraries. By contrast, France with a population of 65.5 million has 16,500 public libraries.
With increased access to books, more Africans would develop interests in reading and writing, spawning higher numbers of writers and journalists. More Africans would be able to articulate themselves in writing, enabling them to document the continent’s history and contribute their perspectives to debates on public policy and foreign policy rather than letting the world write about Africa. More libraries would provide spaces for unemployed and self-employed youth to research and develop their ideas, work on independent projects, and hold meetings with others.
A Guest Editorial