Youth unemployment and its main determinants in Ethiopia

Unemployment is a major social problem in Ethiopia. Throughout the world, the youth is the locomotive of national development. However, recently youth unemployment is both a national and global problem. The main objective of the study was to identify the determinants of youth unemployment in the Wolaita Zone. The study adopted cross-sectional data on youth unemployment. The primary data was collected from 379 sample respondents through an interview questionnaire in the Wolaita zone. To achieve the objective, the study has employed a binary logistic regression model. The descriptive statistics analysis results revealed that about 78.1 % of the youth are unemployed while 21.9 % are employed. Based on the result of the logit model eight out of nine independent variables were found significant determinants of unemployment; from which, age, sex, alcohol-abusing, access to credit use, and educational level negatively affects youth unemployment whereas, marital status, Job information, migration positively affects unemployment. The econometric results suggested the need for the government goes board on creating job opportunities for young youths. It also recommended that the government should facilitate the formalization of familiar employment which reduces the problem of youth unemployment, especially among skilled and educated youth and all secondary schools should have an active partnership with employers. As well as the government must increase the availability of initial working capital, the identification of profitable business areas, and provision of practical training for young youths to be engaged in their own business.