A recent survey has revealed that 8 out of 10 South African youth, have to choose between looking for work and buying food due to the high cost of job hunting.
The Beyond the Cost report by Youth Capital also found that the cost of looking for work is one of the reasons why young people give up searching for job opportunities.
Figures by Statistics South Africa show that in the third- quarter of 2023, more than 43% of the youth aged 15 to 34, was unemployed.
Project lead at Youth Capital Kristal Duncan-Williams says, “The cost of job seeking is staggeringly high for young people, driven mainly by transport costs. So, I think the one positive thing is that we do see that data costs as a component of total costs does seem to actually be going down and young people report using data free platforms a lot more. But, obviously on the transport front it’s still a problem.”
“Because the public transport system does not work very well, young people are forced to use taxis and taxis are actually the most expensive part of public transport and so that’s really a hindrance for young people. One of the things we say is that businesses could now when they hire young people, do the interviews online,” adds Duncan-Williams.
Below is the full interview:
