Editorial: Youth Day highlights brand-new struggle

18 June 2017 - 00:00 By Sunday Times

As we continue reflecting on the role played by this group in rewriting our history, we must do so fully cognisant of the fact that young people today face a different struggle altogether.
Unemployment, particularly among the youth, is alarmingly high. It is at its highest since September 2003. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by StatsSA earlier this month showed that, although 144,000 jobs were created in the first quarter, the number of job seekers also increased by 433,000.
Of those who joined the ranks of the unemployed, 58% were young people, bringing our youth unemployment rate to 38.6%.
We are not alone in this. A study released in Australia found that half of that country's young people - between 18 and 29 - had found it difficult to buy food or pay bills in the past three months. This is a trend around the world.
Five million young people who are sitting at home should worry not only our policymakers but all of us.
We urgently need an aggressive, airtight, multifaceted plan if we are to arrest this.
There is recognition from across the different sectors of our economy, including government and organised business, that we are sitting on a time bomb - but we have done very little to address it...

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