Youth Employment, Recruitment and a Youth-Targeted Wage Subsidy : Findings from a South African Firm Level Survey

Employment issues are the most serious problems facing South Africa currently. Among these are the problems of unemployment, as well as underemployment or lack of decent work for the already employed, compounded by labour markets that are generally less than efficient in job search and matching. Unemployment in South Africa, by narrow standards, is approximately 25 percent, an extraordinarily high level, made even more worrying by its stagnancy or growth at different times over the past decade. However, although such levels of unemployment have detrimental effects on all members of society, they do affect groups differentially. Thus, unemployment rates are consistently, significantly higher for women, Africans, people from rural areas, and the less educated. Unemployment is highest, too, amongst the youth in South Africa, and much higher than international norms, despite rising unemployment amongst youth globally in the past decade. In South Africa, youth is officially defined as people aged between 14 and 35 years old; however, this is not in line with international definitions, which usually demarcate the 16 to 24 year old group. The aim of this paper is therefore to shed some light on the employment process of young South Africans and to investigate firm level responses to the implementation of a targeted hiring voucher for young job seekers aged 20-24. The first section of the paper outlines the conceptual framework used to investigate factors that determine employment of young workers and the impact of a targeted wage subsidy. The second section presents findings from a firm survey illustrating the firm characteristics that are associated with employing young workers and responses to a hypothetical wage voucher. The third section discusses the findings in the light of the theory while the fourth section concludes.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Schoer, Volker, Rankin, Neil
Format:	Working Paper biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2011-06
Subjects:	ACCREDITATION, AGE GROUP, COMPANY, ECONOMICS, EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS, EMPLOYEE, EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS, EMPLOYMENT PROBABILITY, EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP, EQUILIBRIUM UNEMPLOYMENT, EXISTING WORKFORCE, FINDING EMPLOYMENT, FIRM LEVEL, FIRM SURVEY, FIRMS, FURTHER EDUCATION, HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT, HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT RATES, HUMAN CAPITAL, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN RESOURCE, IMPERFECT INFORMATION, JOB MARKET, JOB SEARCH, JOB SEEKER, JOB TRAINING, LABOUR, LABOUR FORCE, LABOUR MARKET, LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES, LABOUR REGULATIONS, LITERATURE, MARKET ENTRY, MONITORING COSTS, OLDER WORKERS, ON THE JOB TRAINING, PAPERS, PAYING JOBS, PREVIOUS WORK, PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCE, PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT, PRODUCTIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY LEVEL, PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT, RISING UNEMPLOYMENT, SCHOOLS, SEARCH COSTS, SECONDARY SCHOOLING, SERVICE SECTOR, SKILLED EMPLOYEES, SKILLED WORKERS, SKILLS TRAINING, STORES, SUBSIDIZED WORKER, TRAINING COST, TRAINING SYSTEM, UNEMPLOYED, UNEMPLOYED JOB SEEKERS, UNEMPLOYMENT, UNEMPLOYMENT RATES, UNIVERSITIES, UNSKILLED JOBS, UNSKILLED WORKER, WAGE DIFFERENTIALS, WAGE SUBSIDY, WAGES, WORK EXPERIENCE, WORKER, YOUNG PEOPLE, YOUNG WORKER, YOUNGER WORKERS, YOUTH, YOUTH EMPLOYMENT, YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/474161468340302761/Youth-employment-recruitment-and-a-youth-targeted-wage-subsidy-findings-from-a-South-African-firm-level-survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27458
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