Youth Employment and Government Job Creation Policy: Youth’s Perception, Intention, Opportunities and Constraints in Southwest Part of

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.