Graduate Unemployment Under Spotlight
Workforce Solutions
The Arab Spring which occurred in the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region was largely attributed to a significant rise in university graduates’ unemployment. Since then, other parts of the world such as the European Union and sub-Saharan Africa have also come to terms with the problem of rampant unemployment amongst the youth, including graduates. This has led to renewed interest in public policy response to this problem.
Governments, multi-lateral don-or organisations such as the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), non-governmental organizations, civil society organisations, international technical cooperating agencies such International Labour Organization (ILO), global think-tanks such as the World Economic Forum, academic institutions, researchers, and even churches such as the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) led by Prophet T.B Joshua of Nigeria, have all added their voice to the need for effective responses to the problem of unemployment among the youth, especially university graduates.
In much of sub-Saharan Africa including Zimbabwe, a combination of demographic factors and expansion of the tertiary education sector has led to the emergence of a large pool of university graduates who are unemployed and under-employed.
In Zimbabwe the tertiary education sector expanded phenomenally with the number of universities increasing from one at independence in 1980 to the now over thirteen universities. This is in addition to the polytechnics and other vocational training institutions and yet there remains tremendous demand for university places in the country.
Ordinarily, the improvement of the level of education of the labour force is a chance for sub-Saharan countries including Zimbabwe because it could contribute to a shift in the structure of their economies towards higher value-added activities in the long run. However, if the new cohorts of educated workers find themselves unemployed as is the case presently, households could be less motivated in investing in human capital.
Moreover, the society pays a high cost for every young person reaching a university degree. It is thus a waste of public resources to leave a significant share of the stock of human capital unemployed.
Finally, given that education is the best way to achieve social mobility, higher unemployment within the highly skilled will disfavour relatively more the less wealthy who cannot rely on physical capital assets to create their own businesses, nor on social capital to get the good jobs because of the rationing that will inevitably grow in the market of skilled labour (Marouani, 2010)
Implementing active labour market policies targeted at this category of workers seems thus a necessity consistent with the foregoing, typical labour market policies focus on both the labour demand-side and the labour supply-side and these are examined below.
Two common labour demand-side policy options have been increasing public research development and incentives for enhancing private research development, and investing heavily in the promotion of highly skilled labour-intensive services exports.
A massive increase in public research development could have a double dividend for a country by increasing the demand for highly educated workers (engineers, researchers, etc.) in the short-run and increasing productivity in the medium long run which means higher growth and lower highly skilled labour costs and thus higher demand for highly educated workers in the medium long run.
The second policy option depends on there being an active trade policy which enhances the export of such kind of services. We have already seen the government of Zimbabwe attempt to export surplus nurses to regional and global labour markets
The most well-known way of reducing educated workers labour supply is to keep them studying as long as possible. Most universities now offer four-year degree programmes instead of three years. Significantly, there is growing focus on postgraduate education as more and more students prolong their stay in university by enrolling for higher degrees.
The second possibility to reduce labour supply is to promote migration of highly educated workers. The prolonged economic crisis in Zimbabwe has seen more and more graduates migrating to regional labour markets like South Africa, Botswana as well as the Diaspora. In most cases, this has been involuntary and ad hoc rather than a result of a formal policy by government to export this highly skilled workforce.
The economic benefits have been the remittances that they send back home although there is no substantial evidence showing that the majority of them are actually employed in their professions in these labour markets.
Another option in reducing the labour supply is entrepreneurship whereby university curriculum emphasises entrepreneurial intentions amongst graduates.
This policy option hinges on other supply-side interventions such as provision of funding for start-ups.
The Graduate Entrepreneurial and Employment Promotion Programme (GEEPP) that was launched by government of Zimbabwe last month fits in with this thinking. It seeks to take advantage of government policies such as land reform and indigenisation and economic empowerment by promoting entrepreneurship amongst university graduates. Already, a number of universities such as Harare Institute of Technology and Chinhoyi Unive-rsity of Technology are offering entrepreneurship training and education as part of their curriculum.
Curiously, controversial preacher Prophet T.B Joshua of SCOAN which is based in Nigeria has also added his voice to the issue of graduate unemployment. In a televised message on his Emmanuel TV at the weekend ahead of his 50th birthday, Prophet T.B Joshua challenged individuals and companies across the world to start providing jobs for unemployed graduates in their countries.
He gave the ominous message that the world is starring a far-greater economic recession which will see numerous companies folding up and prophesised social unrest in various parts of the world as a result of pervasive graduate unemployment.
His strategy for graduate employment creation revolves around this voluntary Graduate Placement programme as well as a dedicated fund for skills training for graduates which will be administered by a committee under his church.
This policy has both labour demand-side and labour supply-side features and it remains to be seen its impact on beneficiaries in the medium-term.
- Anthony Jongwe is a researcher on entrepreneurship with interest in youth development. Send him an e-mail at: itai.jongwe@esbc.co.za
Governments, multi-lateral don-or organisations such as the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), non-governmental organizations, civil society organisations, international technical cooperating agencies such International Labour Organization (ILO), global think-tanks such as the World Economic Forum, academic institutions, researchers, and even churches such as the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) led by Prophet T.B Joshua of Nigeria, have all added their voice to the need for effective responses to the problem of unemployment among the youth, especially university graduates.
In much of sub-Saharan Africa including Zimbabwe, a combination of demographic factors and expansion of the tertiary education sector has led to the emergence of a large pool of university graduates who are unemployed and under-employed.
In Zimbabwe the tertiary education sector expanded phenomenally with the number of universities increasing from one at independence in 1980 to the now over thirteen universities. This is in addition to the polytechnics and other vocational training institutions and yet there remains tremendous demand for university places in the country.
Ordinarily, the improvement of the level of education of the labour force is a chance for sub-Saharan countries including Zimbabwe because it could contribute to a shift in the structure of their economies towards higher value-added activities in the long run. However, if the new cohorts of educated workers find themselves unemployed as is the case presently, households could be less motivated in investing in human capital.
Moreover, the society pays a high cost for every young person reaching a university degree. It is thus a waste of public resources to leave a significant share of the stock of human capital unemployed.
Finally, given that education is the best way to achieve social mobility, higher unemployment within the highly skilled will disfavour relatively more the less wealthy who cannot rely on physical capital assets to create their own businesses, nor on social capital to get the good jobs because of the rationing that will inevitably grow in the market of skilled labour (Marouani, 2010)
Implementing active labour market policies targeted at this category of workers seems thus a necessity consistent with the foregoing, typical labour market policies focus on both the labour demand-side and the labour supply-side and these are examined below.
Two common labour demand-side policy options have been increasing public research development and incentives for enhancing private research development, and investing heavily in the promotion of highly skilled labour-intensive services exports.
A massive increase in public research development could have a double dividend for a country by increasing the demand for highly educated workers (engineers, researchers, etc.) in the short-run and increasing productivity in the medium long run which means higher growth and lower highly skilled labour costs and thus higher demand for highly educated workers in the medium long run.
The second policy option depends on there being an active trade policy which enhances the export of such kind of services. We have already seen the government of Zimbabwe attempt to export surplus nurses to regional and global labour markets
The most well-known way of reducing educated workers labour supply is to keep them studying as long as possible. Most universities now offer four-year degree programmes instead of three years. Significantly, there is growing focus on postgraduate education as more and more students prolong their stay in university by enrolling for higher degrees.
The second possibility to reduce labour supply is to promote migration of highly educated workers. The prolonged economic crisis in Zimbabwe has seen more and more graduates migrating to regional labour markets like South Africa, Botswana as well as the Diaspora. In most cases, this has been involuntary and ad hoc rather than a result of a formal policy by government to export this highly skilled workforce.
The economic benefits have been the remittances that they send back home although there is no substantial evidence showing that the majority of them are actually employed in their professions in these labour markets.
Another option in reducing the labour supply is entrepreneurship whereby university curriculum emphasises entrepreneurial intentions amongst graduates.
This policy option hinges on other supply-side interventions such as provision of funding for start-ups.
The Graduate Entrepreneurial and Employment Promotion Programme (GEEPP) that was launched by government of Zimbabwe last month fits in with this thinking. It seeks to take advantage of government policies such as land reform and indigenisation and economic empowerment by promoting entrepreneurship amongst university graduates. Already, a number of universities such as Harare Institute of Technology and Chinhoyi Unive-rsity of Technology are offering entrepreneurship training and education as part of their curriculum.
Curiously, controversial preacher Prophet T.B Joshua of SCOAN which is based in Nigeria has also added his voice to the issue of graduate unemployment. In a televised message on his Emmanuel TV at the weekend ahead of his 50th birthday, Prophet T.B Joshua challenged individuals and companies across the world to start providing jobs for unemployed graduates in their countries.
He gave the ominous message that the world is starring a far-greater economic recession which will see numerous companies folding up and prophesised social unrest in various parts of the world as a result of pervasive graduate unemployment.
His strategy for graduate employment creation revolves around this voluntary Graduate Placement programme as well as a dedicated fund for skills training for graduates which will be administered by a committee under his church.
This policy has both labour demand-side and labour supply-side features and it remains to be seen its impact on beneficiaries in the medium-term.
- Anthony Jongwe is a researcher on entrepreneurship with interest in youth development. Send him an e-mail at: itai.jongwe@esbc.co.za
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