Geneva · 12 August 2024 — To mark International Youth Day, the International Labour Organization (ILO) released its Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 report, painting a complex and deeply uneven picture of young people's labour market prospects across the African continent.
The report reveals that while global youth unemployment has dipped to a 15-year low, Africa's reality is far more nuanced — and far more troubling. Behind relatively low headline unemployment figures lies a vast crisis of job quality, informality, and exclusion from social protection systems.
Two Africas, One Crisis
The employment situation varies sharply between the continent's sub-regions, creating what the ILO describes as a "dual crisis" of both joblessness and poor job quality.
| Region | Youth Unemployment Rate (2023) | Primary Challenge |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Africa | 22.6% | High open unemployment |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 8.9% | Pervasive informality, low earnings |
Northern Africa faces some of the highest youth unemployment rates globally, with more than one in five economically active young people unable to find work. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the measured rate of 8.9% appears low by international standards — but this figure masks a deeper "decent work" deficit. The vast majority of young workers are engaged in informal employment, earning low wages without contracts, labour rights, or access to social protection.
The Gender Gap Widens
Recovery in the labour market has not been equitable. The report documents significant gender disparities across the continent:
- NEET rates in Sub-Saharan Africa stand at 27% for young women versus 17% for young men — a 10-percentage-point gap that reflects deeply embedded structural barriers to women's economic participation.
- Young women face higher unemployment rates, greater concentration in vulnerable informal employment, and disproportionate burdens of unpaid care work that limit their availability for paid employment.
Informality: The Defining Feature
A central theme of the 2024 report is that unemployment is only part of the story. The vast majority of young workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries — including most African nations — are engaged in informal employment. These jobs typically lack:
- Written contracts or legal protection
- Access to unemployment insurance or pensions
- Health and safety regulations
- Opportunities for skills development or career progression
- Income stability or social security
The ILO argues that the headline unemployment rate, by counting only those actively seeking formal work, systematically underestimates the true scale of labour underutilisation. Many young people in informal work are technically "employed" but earn too little to escape poverty and have no safety net to fall back on.
Social Protection as a Missing Link
The report identifies social protection as a critical — and critically underdeveloped — component of the school-to-work transition. For young people searching for work or moving between temporary informal jobs, social protection provides essential income security that enables them to invest time in finding better opportunities rather than accepting the first available informal position.
In Africa, however, social protection coverage for young people remains among the lowest in the world. Most national social protection systems were designed for formal sector workers and exclude the informal economy where the majority of young people actually work.
The YES-Africa Strategy
To address these interconnected challenges, the ILO and the African Union (AU) have endorsed a Joint Youth Employment Strategy for Africa (YES-Africa), which represents a shift from supply-side interventions toward a more integrated approach. The strategy prioritises three pillars:
1. Accelerating Social Protection
Scaling up labour and social protection to facilitate the transition from informal to formal employment. This includes extending coverage to informal workers, developing unemployment assistance programmes, and creating portable benefits that move with workers across jobs.
2. Structural Transformation
Shifting focus beyond "supply-side" fixes — such as skills training and entrepreneurship programmes — to "demand-side" reforms that create high-productivity, decent jobs. This requires pro-youth macroeconomic policies, sectoral development strategies, and investment in industries that can absorb large numbers of young workers at higher productivity levels.
3. Youth Inclusion
Ensuring young people are active participants in policymaking rather than passive recipients of programmes designed on their behalf. This includes strengthening institutions for youth-inclusive social dialogue, involving youth organisations in policy formulation, and creating accountability mechanisms for youth employment commitments.
The Director-General's Warning
ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo framed the report's findings in stark terms, linking youth employment to broader questions of social stability:
"Peaceful societies rely on three core ingredients: stability, inclusion and social justice; and decent work for the youth is at the heart of all three."
He also highlighted the deeply unequal nature of opportunities available to young people:
"The report reminds us that opportunities for young people are highly unequal; with many young women, young people with limited financial means or from any minority background still struggling. Without equal opportunities to education and decent jobs, millions of young people are missing out on their chances for a better future."
Beyond the Headline Numbers
The report's most important contribution may be its reframing of how youth employment in Africa should be measured and addressed. Traditional unemployment statistics, focused on formal labour markets, fail to capture the reality of a continent where informality is the norm rather than the exception.
For the 53 million young Africans classified as NEET, and the millions more working in precarious informal jobs, the pressing need is not merely any job — but a transition away from the unprotected, low-productivity work that currently defines their reality. The ILO's message to African governments and international partners is clear: the goal must be decent work, not just employment.
Sources:
- ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024:
- ILO News, "New report reveals latest global and regional trends in youth employment":
- ILO/AU Joint Youth Employment Strategy for Africa (YES-Africa):
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Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
