ADB stresses need for economic growth to find jobs for 9.8million Africans

Tunis, 18 Jul – (ANA) - North Africa requires a new approach to economic growth to  find 9.8 million jobs for young people entering the labour market between now and 2012, according to official statistics released by the African Development Bank, ADB. Growth in the last 10 years preceding the Arab Spring did not made it possible for North African countries to create enough jobs for the young, the figures said adding that the regional unemployment rate among the 15 to 24 year-old age group is on average 23%, three to four times higher than that of adults. But the rate is 41% if the discouraged are included: that is, those young inactive people in a position to work but not looking for employment and so are not included in the official statistics.

Over the last decade Morocco and Algeria have achieved a rate of job creation higher than the rate of growth of the active population, but the young have benefited least. In other countries in the region economic growth has not been sufficient to create jobs at a rate matching population growth. The arrival of young people on the labour market represents an opportunity but it could also be a factor of instability if their aspirations are not taken into account. “Taking into account present trends,” according to Mthuli Ncube, Chief Economist at the African Development Bank, “the education of young people in terms of numbers of years of school and college is progressing faster than population growth in North Africa. “This represents a unique opportunity for the economic and social development of the region, on condition that advantage is taken of this talent, this reservoir of human capital in full growth, and it is directed towards the productive sectors of the economy.” (ANA)

FA/ANA/18 July 2012--------