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Showing posts from January, 2013

Zimbabwe and the dilemma of the educated unemployed

One key characteristic of developing nations is that a large proportion of the population is comprised of the youth. The African Development Bank notes that, Africa has the fastest growing and most youthful population in the world. Over 40% percent are under the age of 15 and 20% are between the ages of 15 and 24, which is the accepted definition of youth. Zimbabwe is no exception to this trend, with a large proportion of the population being the youth age-group. Every year, the local tertiary institutions are churning out thousands of graduates, yet youth unemployment continues to be a major problem in the country. The imbalance between the numbers of graduates leaving Universities and Colleges and the numbers being actively absorbed in industry is unsustainably disproportionate. There has been increased pressure to create employment, especially for the youth, but the economy has remained hamstrung with various companies shutting down and overall capacity utilisation declining. Much