Sub Saharan Africa Essay

Summary bullets for Sections 3.2 and 3.3

• From 2015 to 2030, Africa’s workforce will represent two-thirds of the growth in the workforce worldwide.

• The rapid increase in the working-age population adds pressure to the African labour market to create jobs on a sufficient scale.

• There are asymmetries within the African job market in regards to the labour force participation and unemployment rates.

• Sub-Saharan Africa has a high labour force participation rate and a low unemployment rate.

• However, North Africa presents one of the lowest labour force participation rates and a high unemployment rate.

• The increase in the working-age population in Africa could create the potential for a demographic dividend.

• The decline in fertility

• Since 2000, Africa has experienced an economic boom with a GDP growth of almost 5% per year, which was strongly linked to commodity prices and high levels of foreign investments.

• However, the high levels of GDP growth was not translated into the creation of formal jobs,

• The informal sector turned into one the main sources of employment across the continent.

• The lack of stable jobs in Africa encourages people to join the informal sector and increases the vulnerable employment.

• There is a clear correlation between the informal sector and urbanisation, as the fastest growing cities in Africa also have the largest informal sector.

• The patterns of informality also vary across Sub-Saharan Africa.

• The richer countries have the lowest percentages of informal sector employment.

• The current challenges in the African labour market are accentuated by a job mismatch, as there is a shortage of 817,992 heath workers in Africa.

• The current state of the African educational systems is also part of the issue.

Despite the increase in school enrolment, out of the 128 million school-aged children, 97 million will enter school on time, but 37 million will not learn basic