JOB CREATION FOR YOUTH IN AFRICA: ASSESSING THE EMPLOYMENT INTENSITY OF INDUSTRIES WITHOUT SMOKESTACKS

Despite African countries’ robust economic growth since the early 2000s (albeit with a brief slowdown in the 2010s that mostly affected resource-rich countries), job creation during this period was weak and has not kept up with the rapidly expanding working-age population. During 2000-2014, the average employment elasticity in African countries was 0.41 (African Economic Outlook, 2018), lower than the ideal of 0.7 that allows for both employment and productivity growth. Employment elasticity measures the responsiveness of employment to value-added growth: In short, if the value of employment elasticity is found to be x, it means that a 1 percent growth in value-added is associated with x% growth in employment. This paper examines job creation for youth in Africa by assessing the employment intensity of industry without smokestacks.