‘Hustling Out of Unemployment’: Livelihood Responses of Unemployed Young Graduates in the City of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Youth unemployment has emerged as a major policy issue in the recent past. Within policy circles two solutions have been proposed: first, investing in youth education, and second, incorporating youth into agriculture. Our thesis, backed by a long history of proletarianisation, is that perceptions of work and agriculture, which have become deeply entrenched in society, tend to undermine any prospects of educated youth engaging in agriculture-based livelihoods. We develop our argument by focusing on the experiences, responses and livelihood pathways of young university graduates in the city of Bulawayo. We show that young graduate youth prefer livelihood activities which maintain their status as educated citizens, and that agriculture does not confer such status. We argue that young graduates’ aspirations and livelihood pathways are often dictated by societal attitudes and views of what is an acceptable occupation. In this regard, our thesis contradicts the widespread faith in agriculture placed by policymakers in Africa.

Graduate transitions in Africa: Understanding strategies of livelihood generation for universities to better support students

“…Using data from two five-year cohorts born in the 1980s in the United Kingdom (UK), Schoon and Lyons-Amos (2016) identify five main pathways young people take out of school: continuous studies, finding employment straight after school and staying in it; studying after school and then moving into employment; long periods of unemployment; and long periods of economic inactivity (Schoon & Lyons-Amos, 2016). This diverse pathway framework (albeit not this particular model, which is specific to the UK context) has been validated in urban Bulawayo (Mhazo & Thebe, 2020), in peri-urban Cape Town (Webb, 2021), in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa (Rogan & Reynolds, 2016); in rural Kenya (Mwaura, 2017) and across a range of developing country contexts (Juárez & Gayet, 2014). It is an important contribution to the literature because it shows how those grouped together at a certain point (up to lower secondary school in this case) branch off into different types of life courses.…”

Architecture and Politics in Africa

“…In 2008, the period of particularly severe economic crisis marked by hyperinflation, unemployment rose to over 80 per cent (Mhike, 2017). Overall, massive de-industrialisation and job cuts have been on the increase since the 1990s (Mhazo and Thebe, 2020). In practice, there has been no point at which the majority of Harare's society could afford to constantly consume during their leisure time.…”

Architecture and Politics in Africa

“…In 2008, the period of particularly severe economic crisis marked by hyperinflation, unemployment rose to over 80 per cent (Mhike, 2017). Overall, massive de-industrialisation and job cuts have been on the increase since the 1990s (Mhazo and Thebe, 2020). In practice, there has been no point at which the majority of Harare's society could afford to constantly consume during their leisure time.…”