The past decade has seen South African unemployment rise from 21.5% to 27.2% with the highest rates affecting young job seekers between the ages of 18 and 25. A major barrier to youth employment is a current tendency of employers that has been termed ‘experience inflation’.
Restricted resources have caused companies to reduce their costs in terms of training and new employee risk. As a result, employers prefer experienced, older workers, over newly qualified job seekers. Young people entering the work force are being increasingly overlooked as academic qualifications begin to carry less weight than practical field experience. As it stands, majority of ‘entry level’ jobs require at least 2 years of experience in a related field and with experience inflation this pre-requisite is expected to increase to at least 4 years of work experience for an entry level job within the next 5 years. This leaves graduates in a catch 22 situation where they require experience in order to be meaningfully employed but are unable to accrue any experience without first being employed.
On the other hand, older employees are becoming pigeon-holed in current positions as they are only able to progress within the specific field that they have gained experience in and are unable to explore other fields or progress laterally through their professions.
The conundrum of experience inflation is not specific to South Africa, but rather, is prominent globally. Other countries have recognised this barrier to youth employment and have begun addressing it through skills development, social responsibility and graduate programmes which have been well received. British companies have noted that employing younger people started as ‘the right thing to do’ but has now begun to show real return on investment.
The South African government has also shown its distress at the attitudes of employers being a great hindrance to youth employment. Speaking at the youth day celebrations at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that “The challenge for unemployed youth is not only one of skills. There are many graduates who have completed university degrees who are still unemployed, this is a vast pool of skills and knowledge that is being wasted. Employers need to understand that for our country to succeed, for their businesses to thrive, they must take responsibility for providing young people with the work experience they need. They must realise that the only way to get work experience is to get work.”
It remains to be seen whether companies in both the private and public sectors will heed the advice of the presidency and adjust their criteria when hiring new employees. If not, South Africa could be facing a worsening predicament of an increasing number of young people achieving qualifications and holding degrees that will not translate into them securing real-world employment opportunities
About the Author
Sumaya Dadan is currently working for Stellenbosch University. She is a qualified and practicing pharmacist who lives in Cape Town. New to the world of business writing but looking forward to exploring this new challenge. She enjoys creative writing and hopes to one day write and publish her own fiction works. Follow her on Instagram @sumayadadan