The rise in youth employment? Impact evaluation of COVID-19 consequences

The COVID-19 pandemic has significant consequences in many areas and has largely contributed to rising unemployment in almost all countries. The situation is similar in Slovakia, where various degrees of shut-down measures have caused an inflow of newly unemployed people in all age groups. This article focuses on unemployed youth as a vulnerable and disadvantaged group of the working population, as starting a career during a pandemic is complicated or even impossible in some industries under these conditions. In this study, the real situation in Slovakia in 2020-2021 is compared with the development of the job market before the pandemic. The main contribution of the study is the quantification of the extent of the pandemic impact on unemployed youth, but also on other age groups; this evaluation can be considered very accurate given the counterfactual approach used. The results of this study can be used in practice to identify the most affected groups of the population and to implement policy measures aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic, and then to adjust the intensity and amount of allocated funds that will be needed to be spent to support the placement of young people into the labor market.

Constraints Faced by Vegetable Growers in Amaravati Division of Maharashtra

Vegetable cultivation involves intensive cultural operations since sowing to marketing, providing regular employment opportunities to unemployed youth and farm family. Vegetable production is now commercialized, but still traditional farming is done in far flung areas. Besides, they are not as well served by the extension system as the farmers growing food grains. Moreover, most of the vegetable growers in this region are small and marginal farmers, and they have their peculiar concerns and problems which need to be studied urgently and earnest. The present study was carried out in Akola and Amravati districts of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state during the year 2019 with a sample size of 120 respondents to define the constraints faced by vegetable growers in Amravati division of Maharashtra. The major constraints faced by the vegetable growers were price fluctuation, electricity, fertigation, exploitation by middle men and lack of market knowledge.

Vocational training for unemployed youth in Latvia

We analyze the effectiveness of a vocational training (VT) programme targeting unemployed youth in Latvia, contributing to the scant literature on active labour market policies in transition countries. The programme we analyse is part of the Youth Guarantee scheme (2014–2020), the largest action launched by the European Union to combat youth unemployment after the 2008 financial crisis. Although the programme was targeted to youths aged between 15 and 29, priority was given to those younger than 25 years of age. We exploit this eligibility rule in a fuzzy regression discontinuity design framework to estimate the impact of VT participation on the probability of being employed and gross monthly labour income at given dates after the training. Using rich administrative data, we find that the age priority rule increased programme participation for the youngest group by about 10 percentage points. However, participation in the programme did not lead to statistically significant positive effects in labour market outcomes. We argue that this result could be due to some specific characteristics of the programme, namely the voucher system (potentially inducing lock-in effects) and the type of training (classroom instead of on-the-job training). Moreover, the programme was targeted at ex-ante low-employable individuals (e.g. without vocational qualifications), a fact that is confirmed by our analysis of the characteristics of the population of compliers with the age priority rule.

The Youth Labour Market in South Africa

Unemployment has been a stubborn challenge in South Africa, with at least a quarter of the labour force unemployed for most of the past twenty-five years. For youth the transition from schooling to work has not been smooth, resulting in about half of youth wanting jobs not finding employment. This chapter begins by highlighting the key features of the youth labour market. The discussion then turns to reasons for the relatively high youth unemployment rate, such as insufficient number of jobs and spatial planning. An account of implemented policies and interventions to address youth unemployment is then given. The chapter makes the point that economic growth is key to reducing youth unemployment on a large scale but that there are various measures that have been found to be effective in relieving the plight of unemployed youth in South Africa.

Influence of Extension Connectivity on Youth Engagement into Paddy Farming in Kano State, Nigeria

The international development agencies have made a clarion call to the developing countries, upon strengthening their agricultural sectors with a modern technological connectivity, so that massive unemployed youth can be employed in the sector. The insufficient of youth data and studies becomes a major challenge in these countries. However, emphasis of Nigeria’s government was more on the provision of farm inputs subsidies to farmers. While the policy on youth’s inclusion into paddy farming was not given much consideration, despite the growing number of unemployed youths. Also, the availability of paddy fertile land and increase in extension connectivity subscription in the country could have improve both the paddy production and youth employment. Yet over 33% of the youths are unemployed. Thus, designing an effective youth policy could not be realized without analysing factors that can inspire them to participate into farming. This study examines the effect of extension connectivity technology in influencing youth participation in paddy farming in Kano, Nigeria. The study selected 180 youth respondents from mixed sampling techniques and the questionnaire was administered in three paddies local government areas in Kano state around August 2019. The binary logit was used in the estimation of different models. The findings proved that extension connectivity used in farming can inspire youths to participate and remain in paddy farming. The study highlights the need for greater attention in utilising the extension connectivity in enlightening and educating youths to access information to aids paddy farming activities.

Entrepreneurship and the Promises of Inclusive Urban Development in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the rapidly urbanizing countries in Africa and rural-urban migration is the major factor in the urbanization process. Migration is selective and rural youth are more likely to migrate to cities than others. However, the capacity of cities to accommodate the massive influx of migrants by providing formal employment is limited. Consequently, migrants remain marginalized and without access to employment opportunities. The majority are pushed into self-employment in the informal sector with few entrepreneurial skills and no access to affordable finance. Besides, though Ethiopia has shown economic growth, the challenges posed by a fast-growing young population has increased urban inequality, making the youth vulnerable. Despite such challenges, harnessing the benefits of the youth bulge and promoting inclusive development through the promotion of entrepreneurship has become a priority area since 1990s. Although improvements have been made, entrepreneurship programs are unable to reach the unemployed youth and those engaged in informal sector. The objective of this paper is to explore barriers that hinder the youth to formalize informal businesses and to start new businesses. The study followed a qualitative approach. Data were collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions from four cities-Addis Ababa, Adama, Bahir Dar and Hawassa. The findings show that several bottlenecks including politicization of entrepreneurship, lack of understanding of the nature and demands of the youth; weak instructional systems; low levels of service capacity and inefficiency; lack of entrepreneurship education, youth negligence, and corruption hinder entrepreneurship programs and thereby attaining inclusive development in Ethiopia.

Poultry Farming Procedure and Minimization of Poultry Waste through Urban Agriculture: A Case Study of Dey Poultry Farm

Poultry farming is one of the fastest growing segments of the agricultural sector in Garhbeta, Midnapore. It has become a source of revenue for individual farmers. However poultry farming is associated with various environmental pollutants that causes environmental risk like airborne bacteria, pathogenic microorganisms into the environment and food chain. Poultry production is quickly becoming more intensive, geographically concentrated, vertically integrated and link with global supply chain. In Garhbeta, Midnapore area broiler poultry sector has a great potential for providing employment opportunities to the unemployed youth, rural women, small and marginal farmers. Here huge poultry waste managed by land disposal, resulting in environmental problems and odour is very local issue and waste almost attract flies, rotten and other pests that create local nuisances and carry diseases. At improper disposal of poultry carcasses contribute huge water quality problem specially in this areas. This paper present the poultry farming procedure and waste generation from poultry farm which is a significant matter of our environment and management of these waste is also a great challenge for those poultry farm.

How Youth May Find Jobs: The Role of Positivity, Perceived Employability, and Support from Employment Agencies

Youth unemployment is a relevant issue among most European countries; therefore, it is important to understand its individual and situational determinants. This study aimed to investigate a conceptual model that explains the associations among positivity (POS), perceived support from employment agencies, perceived employability (PE), and employment status in a sample of 317 unemployed Italian youth involved in the Youth Guarantee program. In particular, this study investigated the relationships between POS and PE and between PE and employment. Moreover, we analyzed whether the relationship between POS and employment status was mediated by PE and whether the relationship between POS and PE was moderated by perceived support from employment agencies. Results showed that PE totally mediated the relationship between POS and employment status. Furthermore, the moderating role of perceived support from agencies was confirmed; when high, it boosted the relationship between POS and PE. In sum, this study contributes to understanding the key impact of POS on PE, as well as the role played by employment agencies as a “catalyst” of this relationship, allowing, with their support, unemployed youth to maximize their opportunity to find a job. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.