| Abstract: | Youth unemployment is an urgent priority issue for every country. It is priority not only to foster
the economic development of a given country but also for peace. Nevertheless, youth
unemployment is one of the major problems for most African countries including Ethiopia. Bearing
in mind the importance of youth employment, the purpose of the study was to assess perception,
intention, opportunities and constraints of youth employment and government job creation
programs in southwest part of Ethiopia. Accordingly, questionnaires were distributed to a total of
262 youths from Benchi-Maji, Kaffa and Sheka zones. Qualitative and Quantitative data were
generated and analyzed. The result indicated that in general youths had high perception towards
employment and government job creation programs and high intention to engage in the available
jobs created by the government. Concerning the effect of background variables on youths‘
perception towards employment and government job creation programs the result revealed that
background variables like family financial income, awareness about the presence of job creation
program for youths in the area, attending job creation training and having intention to engage in the
available job opportunities had statistically significant effect on youths‘ perception towards
employment and government job creation programs. However, back ground variables like zone,
gender, age, employment status, educational level and family occupation did not have a statistically
significant effect on youths‘ perception towards employment and government job creation
programs. In addition, qualitative data showed that better financial support from the government
through credit, trainings, provision of space/shelter for work, provision of advisory and consultancy
services to those youths who are working in Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) were the major
opportunities for youths that encouraged them to engage in the available job opportunities created
by the government. Furthermore, problems related to lack of skills relevant to work, lack of
information about job creation programs especially youths from rural areas, long time to get credit
from credit associations, lack of commitment from both sides; youths and stakeholders who work in
the government job creation program, and problems related to creating demands to those products
produced by MSEs were the major constraints in youth employment and government job creation
programs. Finally, the implications of making needed improvement to the government youth
employment policies and interventions thereby to promote economic growth and create a stable
social and political environment in the country were also identified. |
