Our Viewpoint | SA’s Youth unemployment crisis

The plight of unemployed young people, some of whom have completed their university education but still cannot find work, makes the recent decline in overall unemployment largely inconsequential. According to Statistics South Africa, unemployment in the fourth quarter of last year dropped from 31,9% in the third quarter to 31,4% in the fourth quarter. However, beneath the headline figure, youth unemployment continues to leave thousands of young people locked out of the economy.

Nowhere is this contradiction more evident than in KwaZulu-Natal, where many graduates remain unemployed months after completing their studies. A week ago, unemployed young data capturers staged a protest outside the provincial government offices in Pietermaritzburg. Prior to that, graduate teachers and social workers staged protests outside the same provincial government offices.

For these young people, the promise that education is the pathway to opportunity is increasingly ringing hollow. The consequence is that young people remain unemployed not because opportunities do not exist, but because the systems designed to enable training and employment have become obstacles themselves. The youth unemployment crisis has sparked a number of private initiatives aimed at helping young people enter the job market.

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Efforts such as the GradMatch digital platform — which seeks to connect unemployed graduates with local businesses — should indeed be welcomed. There is anecdotal evidence showing that initiatives that use technology to match skills with opportunities play an important role in bridging the gap between education and employment. However, isolated projects cannot resolve a crisis of this scale.

What is required is a far more co-ordinated national response. Independent economist Professor Bonke Dumisa’s call for a fundamental overhaul of the education system deserves serious consideration. In many advanced economies, digital literacy and technical skills are introduced at an early stage, ensuring that students are equipped for the demands of a modern labour market.

Youth unemployment is not simply a statistic — it is a looming social and economic risk. Given that when we speak about the future of the country we are essentially speaking about young people, failure to integrate the youth into the economy risks derailing the country’s longterm development.

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