Work and Income for Young Men and Women in Africa: Employment Potential of Specific Sectors and Sub-Sectors in African Economies: A synthesis
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Date
2022-08
Authors
Hoeven, Rolph van der
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research Consortium
Abstract
This paper synthesizes two framework papers for the Growth Sectors for Youth
Employment: An AERC‒ODI‒ERF‒INCLUDE Collaborative Research Project, which
both point to the need for a well-designed sectoral approach in Africa's structural
transformation to generate full and productive employment, especially for youth.
While an industrial sector itself might not be labour-intensive, the inter-sectoral
demand, or creation of value-added in that sector, can boost growth in another
sector that is more labour-intensive, resulting in an increase in total employment.
Inter-sectoral linkages are, therefore, important in tracking the overall employment
effects of any expanding sector. An important question is whether current global trends
might throw some doubts on whether in Africa an exclusive reliance on industrial
sectors remains a path for structural transformation that was followed mainly by
earlier developing countries. Global trends presenting new opportunities for Africa
are singled out and three sets of industries relevant for structural transformation and
employment creation in Africa are discussed. Given the right incentives, both FDI and
domestic investment can create modern firms creating youth employment, but that,
because of still high labour force growth in Africa, ‘informal will be normal’ for some
time a youth employment agenda needs also to tackle productivity issues in this
sector, both on and off the farm and in urban areas.