By Own Correspondent

A total of 2,26 million youths in Zimbabwe are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) pending idle days with a bleak future ahead, Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStats) has reported.

According to the First Quarter Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released recently by the nation’s sole statistics organ, a whopping 1,197,122 youths between the ages of 15 to 24 were in the NEET category in the last quarter of 2023 compared to 1,377, 336 who entered the category this year.

In the 3^rd quarter of 2023 2,267,290 youths aged between 15 and 35 were in the NEET category compared to 2,338,942 youths in the first quarter of the year.

 According to Zimbabwe’s census, the country has a young population, with approximately 61% under 25. Zimbabwe faces a serious unemployment problem and underemployment, especially among its youth, whose unemployment rate is 35%.

Recent research has revealed the persistent barriers female adolescents and youth face in transitioning from education to the workforce. Adolescent girls are under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) subjects, which impacts their potential for training in skills for the 21st century. 

Institutions like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have since raised the red flag on Zimbabwe warning that the country is missing the opportunity to reap the benefits of the Demographic Dividend (DD).

In population studies, (DD) refers to the temporary economic benefits that can arise from a significant increase in the ratio of working age adults as a result of rapid fertility decline.

Statistics by UNFPA say that the country’s population has almost doubled over the span of three decades, rising from 7, 5 million in 1982 to an estimated 16,5 million which, if properly tapped into, can boost the country’s economy.

“The country’s window of opportunity for harnessing the first demographic dividend opened before 1990 and reached a peak in 2013 and is now in the diminishing returns phase,” a UNFPA report observed.

Meanwhile, economic experts and Civil Society Organisations in Zimbabwe have since called on the government to escalate the implementation of policies which target the youth.