The young and the jobless: The struggle of the qualified yet unemployed

Noxolo Mahlubi’s N6 qualification in public management has not translated into employment. The 32-year-old who hails from Qumbu in the Eastern Cape says her struggle started when she failed to secure the in-service training required to complete her qualification.

“We were told to go to TVET colleges because universities are full. We were promised the same skill set, but we are struggling to get in-service training for us to get our qualifications,” she said.

Her inability to enter the workplace has left her increasingly discouraged.

“I do not know what being employed feels like, and yet I went to school… so with these latest unemployment statistics, it does not give you any hope,” Mahlubi said.

She currently relies on her son’s child support grant to survive, despite the money being intended primarily for his needs.

Mahlubi’s story mirrors those of millions of unemployed young people in the country. During the second quarter, the total number of unemployed youth (15-34 years) increased to 5-million, Statistics South Africa reported in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey last week. While the country’s official unemployment rate increased to 33.6%.

Further north of the country, in the North West, 31-year-old Onalenna Motau is also sitting at home with a post-matric qualification, a diploma in veterinary technology. Although she is yet to secure an offer of employment, she has at least secured some interviews. But those only came after she submitted more than 50 applications.

The wait, the angst and the uncertainty have, she says, affected her relationships, daily routines, and mental wellbeing.

“I don’t communicate with my people anymore because I don’t even know what to say to people; I don’t go anywhere. I wait for my mum to come with bread after work,” she said.

For Tebogo Ngubo, who was born and raised in Johannesburg, the financial hub of the country, being counted among the country’s unemployed has been deeply frustrating.

“Growing up, I always dreamed of being financially independent, building something of my own and being in a position where I could also help my family...” the 28-year-old told Sunday World.

For young people like Mahlubi, Motau and Ngubo, and millions of others across the country, unemployment is not a number on a graph; it is a daily reality marked by financial hardship, frustration, anxiety, and uncertainty about the future that is not fully captured in the stats.

Two analysts that Sunday World spoke to outline some of the impediments that job seekers face daily.

In their shared struggle to find work, Mahlubi, Motau and Ngubo share another common challenge – they have no previous work experience. This is one of the glaring concerns that emerged from last week’s numbers, according to Annelene Dippenaar, chief business officer at Shop2Shop.

“The majority of unemployed youth in this country have no previous work experience whatsoever… the problem is that it [the labour market] never admitted them in the first place,” she says.

The other problem for many young job seekers is that a growing number of them are not employed, in education or training – a category often referred to as NEET – significantly “reducing their chances of securing work due to limited skills, qualifications and workplace exposure”, according to Nkosinathi Mahlangu, youth employment portfolio head at Momentum.

Mahlangu says many young people have become discouraged from actively seeking employment, including graduates such as Motau and Mahlubi who struggle to find opportunities aligned with their qualifications.

Job seeking, Ngubo notes, is also a costly exercise.

“Even the little things become a struggle, like having money for transport to get to interviews, buying data to apply for jobs, and then dealing with that constant thought of, ‘What am I doing wrong?” she said.

It is a struggle Dippenaar attributes to South Africa’s spatial geography, where work opportunities in townships and/or rural areas are few and far between. She also notes the brutality of the recruitment process on people who are not part of the system.

“Employers screen on experience. Experience requires a job. A young person with no payslip, no employment history and no credit record is effectively invisible to every system that allocates opportunity in this economy…they are not unqualified. They are unrecorded,” she notes.

Both Mahlangu and Dippenaar point to the disconnect between higher education outputs and labour market demands, but there is also the structural problem of persistently low economic growth, whose consequences are likely to be felt for years to come.

For Mahlangu, addressing youth unemployment requires coordinated and meaningful collaboration between government, business, educational institutions, and civil society. By aligning training, economic opportunities, and workforce planning, he believes South Africa can create a more inclusive and responsive system that equips young people for long-term success.

Dippenaar, on the other hand, suggests reducing the cost of registering and legally operating a very small business.

She also stresses that the operating environment that small businesses depend on, as well as infrastructure such as electricity, transport and safety, needs to be strengthened.

For Mahlubi, Motau and Ngubo, the struggle continues as they continue to keep their dreams and hopes alive amid grim statistics.