Staylised Facts on Youth in Africa

Stylized facts about youth and labor
markets in Africa

In 2005, the labor force participation rate of young males was 73.7% (ILO 2006), one of
the highest in the world (ILO 2006, United Nations 2007). 

Youth make up 36.9% of the working- age population, but 59.5% of the total un-
employed, which is much higher than the world’s average for 2005 (43.7%), reflecting
serious labor demand deficiencies in the re- gion (ILO 2006). The share of unemployed
youth among the total unemployed can be as high as 83% in Uganda, 68% in Zimbabwe,
and 56% in Burkina.

4 Unemployment among youth is often higher than among adults (Table 3).
Youth unemployment is more preva- lent in urban areas (Table 4) and is higher
among those with higher education attain- ment and those in wealthy households. On
average, unemployment among those with secondary education or above is three times
higher than among those with no education attainment, and unemployment is twice as
high among youth from households in the fifth (or highest) income quintile as com-
pared to those in the first income quintile (Figure 1).5
Youth are more likely than adults to be in the informal sector, and less likely to be wage
employed or self-employed. In 2005 in Ethio- 

Unemployment as defined by ILO is increas- ingly seen as inadequate to characterize low in-
come countries’ labor markets (Cling et al. 2006; Fares et al. 2006; World Bank 2006, inter alia).
Youth unemployment does not provide a full and adequate description of the difficulties youth face
in the labor market. In fact, in countries with widespread poverty, looking at the unemploy-
ment rate may be misleading because most youth cannot afford to be unemployed. The difficulties
in the labor market may be better reflected by measures of quality of employment or measures



Source: World Bank Survey-Based Harmonized Indicators Program (SHIP)), Ethiopia LFS 2005, Madagascar EPM 2005 and Tanzania ILFS 2005/06.


of underemployment. As an illustration, youth unemployment was only 0.8% in Malawi, 2.1%
in Burkina, and 0.7% in Rwanda (United Nations 2007). Therefore, unemployment should not be
the main component of a youth employment strategy or the main results performance indica-
tor of labor markets in Africa.

Distinguishing between who is rural and urban is increasingly difficult, especially with the expan-
sion of semi-urban areas where large proportions of populations rely on agricultural activities to
meet their livelihood needs.

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