Could a four-day week help youth unemployment? This organisation believes so

Youth advisory, training, recruitment, and placement organisation Afrika Tikkun Services (ATS) has weighed in on a four-day work week pilot project, claiming it may offer a solution to SA's youth unemployment crisis.

According to Stats SA, the number of unemployed youth (aged 15 to 34) increase by 2% (or 92,000) in the second quarter of 2022 to 4.8-million.

ATS CEO Onyi Nwaneri said there may be an opportunity to address this rampant unemployment through 4 Day Work Week SA's pilot project in 2023.

The project will see employees at participating companies working 80% of their regular working hours for 100% pay. It has already been tried internationally with  companies reporting positive results.

Nwaneri said the initiative will be a win-win for both the employee and employer and suggested looking into a model where the extra day is used to create a job for an unemployed youth.

“In light of SA’s high youth unemployment, employees may be accommodating of a trade-off where the extra day enables someone else to put food on the table for themselves and their family via an employment intervention,” said Nwaneri.

ATS said the four-day work week would also address exhaustion and household financial pressures.

It added that working employees to exhaustion is harmful to their mental health, productivity and creativity. A balance where a level of accountability is imposed to incentivise productivity and output/outcome-based delivery is required.

“Young professionals and workers in general are facing multiple pressures that affect productivity. The high cost of living, daily commutes and family responsibilities leave workers in a constant state of exhaustion, meaning a lot of them are not working at 100% capacity,” noted Nwaneri.

The department of basic education recently opened applications for phase 4 of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, offering 255,000 short-term positions for unemployed young people.

The opportunities are open to youth in all nine provinces, with vacancies at around 20,000 state schools and schools for pupils with special education needs.

“Phase 4 comes as the country’s youth have reaped the benefits of more than 850,000 job opportunities coupled with training offered throughout this initiative. The applications will officially open on September 26 and close on October 16. This gives the youth three weeks for applications,” the department said.

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