Youth unemployment stats show need for business opportunities, not just grants - NGO

South Africa must shift its response to youth unemployment from preparing young people to look for jobs to equipping them to create their own opportunities, youth development organisation Afrika Tikkun said following the release of the latest labour data.

Statistics South Africa’s fourth-quarter 2025 Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) confirmed youth unemployment at 43.8%, prompting renewed debate about social grants and government programmes.

Afrika Tikkun executive chairperson and group CEO Marc Lubner said the national conversation often overlooks what young people actually want.

“Young people, having grown up in a digital economy, do not want to be the recipients of social grants. They want the opportunity to express themselves through their work or through their businesses,” Lubner said.

He highlighted what the organisation described as a growing contradiction: while the country is producing more matriculants, youth employment declined by 113 000 in the fourth quarter of 2025. This means more school-leavers are entering the labour market with fewer opportunities and little or no work experience.

“It is those youth who have not had the benefit or opportunity of having a job or any work experience that are struggling to find work in the formal sector,” Lubner said. “And the reality is that the formal job market is not going to improve anytime soon.”

According to Afrika Tikkun, the response should be a shift away from training job-seekers towards developing job-creators. This includes equipping young people with digital skills to market services online, manage project-based income, set up digital payment systems and grow small enterprises.

The organisation said building sustainable youth enterprises requires long-term support that begins well before young people leave school.

“If we are to impact youth unemployment, we cannot focus on small vendors. We have to look at small enterprises with the capability to grow into medium and large-sized businesses, because those will be the employers of the future,” Lubner said.

Afrika Tikkun said its approach is informed by three decades of experience, during which it has supported more than 40 000 children and young people annually across South Africa.

Lubner called for stronger collaboration across sectors, urging government to move beyond short-term public employment programmes and instead channel infrastructure opportunities to youth-owned businesses.

He also called on financial institutions to address the lack of seed capital and cash-flow support for young entrepreneurs, and encouraged corporates to use procurement to create immediate opportunities for youth enterprises.

“Ultimately, this requires government, business and civil society to support young people to become the architects of their own economic future,” Lubner said. “The young people are ready. The question is whether the systems around them are.”