What happens to a young person who spends years studying, graduates with qualifications, sends application after application and still cannot find a job? At what point does hope begin to feel like a burden rather than motivation? And how long can a generation be told to ‘keep trying’ when opportunities remain painfully limited?
Youth unemployment is not simply a statistic. Behind every percentage is a young person sitting at home, refreshing their email, checking their phone for a call that never comes, or travelling from one workplace to another carrying a CV that may never even be opened.
For many young people, education has always been presented as the pathway to a better life. We are told to work hard at school, obtain qualifications, go to university and build a career. But what happens after the graduation gown comes off? What happens when the certificate is in your hands but there is nowhere to use it?
This is the frustration facing many young people today. There is nothing wrong with encouraging young people to work hard. There is nothing wrong with telling them to be resilient, innovative and entrepreneurial, but should young people constantly be expected to create their own opportunities when the economy itself is struggling to create enough jobs?
How many small businesses can one young person start without access to affordable financing? How many times can a graduate volunteer simply to gain ‘experience’ when they still have transport costs, food expenses and family responsibilities? And how many unpaid internships can someone complete before experience itself becomes another barrier to employment? Youth unemployment also raises uncomfortable questions about the relationship between education and the labour market. Are we preparing young people for the jobs that actually exist? Are universities and colleges communicating enough with industries about the skills employers need? And when thousands of young people graduate every year, where are the corresponding opportunities? A qualification should not be treated as a guarantee of employment, but neither should it become a piece of paper that a young person eventually stores away because there is nowhere to use it. The consequences of unemployment go beyond an empty bank account.
Employment gives young people more than an income. It can provide independence, confidence, purpose and the ability to contribute to their families and communities. Without employment, some young people remain financially dependent on parents or relatives long after they expected to stand on their own feet.
What does that do to a young person’s sense of dignity? What happens when someone has spent years being told that their future is bright, only to discover that the door to that future appears to be locked? There is also a danger in romanticising entrepreneurship as the answer to every unemployment problem.
Yes, entrepreneurship matters. Young people should be encouraged to develop businesses, create products and identify opportunities, but entrepreneurship requires more than determination. It requires capital, markets, infrastructure, skills, mentorship and an environment in which businesses can survive. Can we honestly tell every unemployed graduate to ‘start a business’ without asking whether they have access to the resources required to do so? Maybe the conversation needs to move beyond blaming young people for not being innovative enough.
Governments, businesses, educational institutions and society all have roles to play. Are there enough internships that lead to actual employment? Are businesses investing in graduate training? Are public institutions creating meaningful opportunities for young professionals? Are policies designed around the realities young people face or are they simply impressive documents sitting on shelves and what about young people who do not have university degrees?
The unemployment crisis cannot only be discussed through the experiences of graduates. A young person who leaves school without a degree also deserves a pathway into productive work. Technical skills, vocational training, apprenticeships and practical experience can provide valuable alternatives, but are these pathways receiving the attention and investment they deserve?
Youth unemployment is also a ticking social and economic challenge. What happens when a large population of young people has energy, ideas and ambition but no meaningful opportunities to use them? What happens when frustration replaces hope? What happens when young people begin believing that their country has no place for them?
These are not questions we should wait to answer after the consequences become impossible to ignore.
Young people do not expect everything to be handed to them. Most simply want a fair opportunity to prove themselves. They want to work. They want to earn. They want to build businesses. They want to contribute. They want to know that the years spent studying and preparing for adulthood were not wasted. So perhaps the question is not whether young people are willing to work. Maybe the real question is: Where are the opportunities?
How long should a graduate wait before their qualification becomes useful? How many applications should they submit before someone gives them a chance? How many dreams can be postponed before a generation starts losing faith in the promise of tomorrow? Youth unemployment is not merely a problem for young people. It is a problem for families, businesses, governments and the economy as a whole.
If young people are the future, what are we doing about their present? If we continue asking them to wait, how long are we prepared to wait before we realise that they have already waited long enough?
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