While the coronavirus has not finished negatively impacting the African labor market, the International Labor Organization (ILO) still predicts a bleak future for employment in sub-Saharan Africa. In its new report “World Employment and Social Issues: Trends 2020”, published recently, the ILO argued that labor market problems in this region are expected to increase in the near future. This situation, the document points out, is justified by the fact that Africa's youth labor force is experiencing very strong growth in absolute numbers.

Due to strong population growth across the continent, young people aged 15-24 are expected to number 283 million by 2030 in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, a tripling of the absolute size of the population. of this age group compared to 1990. In addition, the forum indicated that Africa faces major challenges related to decent work deficits and poverty.

According to statistics, Africa is the region with by far the lowest GDP per capita in the world. On the continent, 53.9% of workers live in poverty, i.e. in a household whose daily income per capita is less than 3.20 dollars (PPP), which reflects the low level of wealth and its very uneven distribution.

By comparison, the in-work poverty rate in Asia and the Pacific is significantly lower, at 18.8%. An estimated 85.8% of African workers are informally employed, which means that on average they have limited access to social security and few or no rights at work.

In addition, the organization unveiled the top 5 African countries most affected by unemployment. These are respectively Burkina Faso (77.00%), Senegal (48.00%), Kenya (40.00%), Djibouti (40.00%) and Congo (36.00%) .