Youth and Employment: An Everyday Questioning

In Burkina Faso, many programs are investing in the employability of young people. Whether they are addressed to the informal or the formal sectors, they all combine to provide opportunities for new graduates. According to International Labour Organization statistics, 344 million people will enter the labour market in the next 10 years. And 2.5 billion people work in the informal economy. What about the Sahel countries? What about Burkina Faso? Looking at the global figures it is evident that the situation is more than worrying in the country of the upright Men.

According to the National Plan for Economic and Social Development (PNDES), 50,000 decent jobs would be created each year in Burkina Faso. To make this happen, several initiatives are being deployed by the government and some businesses to employ more and to reduce the number of jobseekers on the market.

Every year in Burkina Faso, around 150,000 job seekers enter the labour market according to statistics from the Ministry of Youth and the promotion of youth entrepreneurship. This large number of job seekers have two main options. Either they enter professionally in the private sector, or they apply for public service competitions. For this year 2019 for instance the direct competitions in the Public Service registered more than 1,200,000 applicants for less than 10,000 vacancies. That is an absorption rate of less than 10%.

The job market this hardened from year to year, the number of job seekers increases while the supply is lower. Hence, young people are being incentivized to self-employ in order to create more opportunities. Some accompanying measures are on place but they remain limited and inaccessible to some young people.