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Child Labour and the Youth Employment Challenge
David Lam, Ahmed Elsayed ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view ·Key points
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Abstract
Abstract Chapter 7 focuses on children and youth, a critical topic given the young age structures in many low-income countries. Widespread child employment can dampen future economic growth through its negative impact on child development and depress current growth by reducing unskilled wages and discouraging the adoption of skill-intensive technologies. Rising incomes are associated with a greater demand for children’s education and leisure and with improvements in the family’s ability to buffer economic shocks without child labour. All of these factors lead to declines in the economic activity of children when income levels are on the rise. The chapter also discusses the challenges to youth employment in LICs. While the large cohort of youth entering Africa’s labour force is better educated than previous cohorts, jobs remain elusive in the formal wage sector, given the limited success in African economies in structural transformation from low productivity agriculture to higher productivity non‐agricultural sectors.