Formal‐sector employment and Africa's youth employment crisis: Irrelevance or policy priority?

Sumberg, James; Flynn, Justin; Mader, Philip; Mwaura, Grace; Oosterom, Marjoke; Sam‐Kpakra, Robert; Shittu, Ayodele Ibrahim

doi:10.1111/dpr.12436

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The article contributes to knowledge of young people’s work and well‐being using data from four LMICs, namely Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. The findings provide further support for policy directed to creating what has been termed by Sumberg et al (2020) “a decent work economy.”…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Well‐being and employment of young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: Is work enough?

Carmichael

Darko

Vasilakos

2021

Development Policy Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Motivation Investing in youth employment is central to development agendas. However, policy directed towards increasing employment rates among young people needs to consider the well‐being implications of the different kinds of jobs they are able to access. This would help countries to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of decent work for all, including young people, by 2030. Purpose This article examines the association between the well‐being of young people in Ethiopia, Peru, India, and Vietnam and their employment and the job attributes of the work they do. Methods and approach The study uses five waves of the Young Lives longitudinal survey for a sample of children who are followed from the ages of eight to 22. Regression analysis estimates the relationship between well‐being, employment, and job attributes, taking into account gender, wealth, current, and childhood health, and exposure to shocks over life‐courses from the age of eight. Findings The results show that in these four countries, employment does not have an unqualified positive effect on well‐being. Not all jobs are “good jobs.” Job attributes matter, specifically, who employs the individual, their pay, the work environment, and the pride they take in their work. Well‐being is predicted by current and childhood health and household wealth with ownership of consumer durables associated more strongly with well‐being than housing quality or access to services. Greater exposure to shocks from the age of eight is found to have lasting effects on well‐being into young adulthood. Policy implications Policy aimed at improving young people’s opportunities for employment in the Global South also to consider the types of jobs they are able to access and how this impacts their well‐being. Policy also needs to take into account pre‐labour market conditions and circumstances.

show abstract

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Well‐being and employment of young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: Is work enough?

Carmichael

Darko

Vasilakos

2021

Development Policy Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The promotion of self‐employment as a response to high and increasing youth underemployment and unemployment is illustrative of policy prescriptions that are taken up without adequate research into young people’s present realities and imagined futures. The university graduates in our sample had a low preference for self‐employment, suggesting that the policy push for youth self‐employment is at odds with the preferences of university graduates for wage employment, as is true for other categories of youth (e.g., Sumberg et al, 2020). Again, a fundamental assumption underlying the policies to promote self‐employment is that pursuing these activities is a long‐term work option.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Second, the policy emphasis on youth self‐employment can be seen as an attempt to shift the responsibility of job creation from the state to young people (Jeffrey & Dyson, 2013). For these and other reasons, it has been argued that the most tenable, long‐term solution to the challenge of youth employment in Africa is the expansion of decent work in the formal sector for the mostly urban‐based educated youth cohort (Sumberg et al, 2020) for whom self‐employment in its current form—small‐scale and informal—is only a last resort (Falco & Haywood, 2016). Nonetheless, in sub‐Saharan Africa today, “wage employment, particularly in the formal sector, is the exception rather than the rule” (Chakravarty et al, 2017, p. 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐employment preferences among university graduates in Ghana: Does gender make a difference?

Ajayi

Anyidoho

2021

Development Policy Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Motivation Youth employment has become an urgent policy issue in Africa. Half of the population is under 25 years old on a continent in which job creation lags behind economic growth. Consequently, policy‐makers have increasingly proposed self‐employment as a solution to the challenge of youth unemployment. Purpose This study examines self‐employment preferences among university graduates in Ghana. We address two related questions: (1) Are there gender differences in young people’s willingness to pursue self‐employment; and (2) what are the predictors of preference for self‐employment in male and female graduates? Methods and approach Our analysis draws on a sample of 1,180 university graduates interviewed during their compulsory year of national service, which follows graduation. We analyse gender and other sub‐group differences using t‐tests for statistical significance of differences in means. We then estimate multinomial logit regressions to analyse what factors predict employment preferences. Findings We find substantial gender differences in preferences for self‐employment. Despite women having higher rates of self‐employment in the economy, the female graduates in our sample are significantly less likely to prefer self‐employment than men—12% of women and 16% of men report that their desired type of work would be self‐employment. Moreover, while marital status and childbearing are the strongest predictors of self‐employment preferences for women, self‐employment experience and financial background are the strongest predictors for men. Policy implications This study suggests that gender differences in labour market outcomes are partly a function of differential preferences rooted in unequal constraints. Bridging these gendered inequalities will require policy interventions that both impact the preferences women form prior to entering the labour market and address their gender‐specific concerns about family responsibilities.

show abstract

“…Shifting this radically in contexts where market forces exert strong pressure, and the ‘bottom‐line’ rules, is challenging. Many low‐income countries' labour markets are fiercely competitive, providing only very small numbers of formal, legally protected jobs (Sumberg et al, 2020).…”

Section: Conceptually Grounding Disability Inclusive Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving disability inclusive employment – Are the current approaches deep enough?

Shaw

Wickenden

Thompson

et al. 2022

J of Intl Development

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Diverse approaches to promoting disability inclusive employment aim to transform workplaces into truly inclusive environments, usually with intervention strategies targeting two main groups: employers and jobseekers with disabilities. However, they do not always consider other relevant stakeholders or address the relationships and interactions between diverse actors in the wider social ecosystem. These approaches often neglect deeper ‘vexing’ difficulties which block progress towards disability inclusive work environments. Most interventions rightly embrace hegemonic ‘social models of disability’ and use human rights arguments but may neglect entrenched structural factors. Disability inclusive employment is complex, with unaddressed invisible aspects that continue to limit progress. We explore some key relevant disability concepts and then interrogate evidence from the ‘Inclusion Works’ programme working in four middle‐ and low‐income countries, considering some intractable barriers underlying the slow movement towards inclusive employment. Finally, we propose that a more participatory action orientated approach involving disabled people and others is needed to both generate deeper understanding and provide pathways towards new solutions to obstinate problems through progressive action learning processes in context. Programmatic interventions that work across the levels of the ecosystem and address power relations and interactions between stakeholders could lead to more substantial forms of disability inclusive employment.

show abstract

Formal‐sector employment and Africa's youth employment crisis: Irrelevance or policy priority?

Cited by 23 publications

References 26 publications

Well‐being and employment of young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: Is work enough?

Well‐being and employment of young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: Is work enough?

Self‐employment preferences among university graduates in Ghana: Does gender make a difference?

Achieving disability inclusive employment – Are the current approaches deep enough?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About