Introduction

The previous chapters articulate in detail the principles of ST and the implications for urbanization, industrialization and quality of life. This chapter sets out to describe the pathways to employment and the relationships between structural economic transformation and employment. Equally, the chapter demonstrates how this crucial relationship impacts development and growth for African economies. Employment is understood technically as a contractual relationship between two parties where one party works while the other pays for this work, resulting in opportunities for people to earn a living. In the grand scheme of things, employment results in economic development as it allocates the work force into sectors with the highest growth potential and productivity. Other than this, employment also creates the environment for social welfare to flourish; it enables a rise in the living standards and minimum wage employments, among others. Studying this relationship between ST and employments enables better understanding of the true long- and short- term causes of rural and urban unemployment.

Global unemployment has continued to rise particularly since the financial crisis, but the situation in Africa is of particular concern given its large percentage of youth. From AfDB (2016) data, one- third of the African youth are unemployed and discouraged, another third are vulnerably employed and only one in six are in wage employment. Africa has the fastest growing and most youthful population— with nearly 420 million people in Africa between 15 and 35 years of age; the youth face roughly double the unemployment rate of adults, with significant variation by country. This proportion of the region's population constitutes a significant asset if properly managed but a ticking socioeconomic time bomb if left undeveloped and unemployed in productive work.

Currently, unemployment constitutes a major socioeconomic challenge to the region. For instance, unemployment rate in South Africa rose to 27.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019 from 27.1 percent in the previous period. Nigeria also experienced an increasing rate of unemployment from 22.70 percent in the second quarter of 2018 to 23.10 percent by the end of the third quarter (Trading Economics, 2019b).

There is a clear connection between employment and economic growth although the growth- employment nexus varies considerably with economic structures and levels of development. For instance, while informal employment is strikingly extensive and widespread in many Asian and African cities, formal employment is more prevalent in advanced industrial economies.