South Africa’s door knockers: young people and unemployment in metropolitan South Africa

Unemployment is South Africa’s primary policy challenge. Its most serious aspect is the staggering number of young jobless people. In 2005, four million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were part of the South African labour force, which means they were available for a job. Of those, 65 per cent – or 2,6 million – were unemployed.

This is not a neglected problem; both government and business are aware of the threats that unemployment poses to our economic wellbeing and social fabric. They, as well as non-government organisations and foreign donors, have launched various job creation schemes. However, little has been done to investigate their efficacy.
To help fill this gap, CDE designed a research project aimed at surveying and assessing current job creation ventures. Given the central role of South Africa’s metropolitan areas in economic growth and job creation, the project focused on these areas of comparative economic dynamism. There were two main research elements. The first was a series of surveys of young people in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town. These aimed to probe a range of variables surrounding employment and unemployment, including work-related values. The second was a survey of job creation programmes in the same cities.

ISBN: 978-0-9802628-7-2
Publisher: CDE
Edition: CDE in depth no.8
Year of Publication: 2008