A growing number of African teenagers are entering the labour market before completing their education, taking up low-paying and informal jobs that risk locking them out of better-paying opportunities later in life, a new report shows.
The inaugural Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026, REVEALED A worrying shift “from work to study”, where young people aged between 15 and 17 are joining the workforce prematurely, largely in informal agricultural roles.
The report, produced by World Data Lab AND the University of Cape Town’s Development Policy Research Unit, says that early exposure to work, often driven by economic necessity, comes at the expense of completing formal education.
The findings come at a time when Africa’s youth population continues to expand, even as other regions face demographic decline.
Africa’s youth population is projected to grow by a record 132 million by 2030 with larger growth expected in the 2030s
