Beating youth unemployment through entrepreneurship

By Carlos Pascal

In 2012, nearly seventy five (75) million young people between the ages of fifteen (15) and twenty four (24) were unemployed worldwide, and 14.3 percent of those young people lived in Latin America, including the Caribbean.

Considering this alarming rate of unemployment, Caribbean governments have put forth a number of initiatives to provide their youth with basic skills and opportunities to find gainful work.

However, there is still more to be done. At a time of considerable economic decline, youth entrepreneurship and careful monitoring of programs are promising solutions because these measures provide young people with the means to be self-employed and to remain so for an extended period of time.

There are numerous reasons why high unemployment rates exist among young people throughout the region.
First, the recent global economic downturn characterized by “recession, debt service obligations, and declines in development assistance” significantly decreased the number of job openings available.

For example, as a result of the crisis, Jamaica’s overall labor force decreased by 2.7 percent in 2010. This resulted in the loss of 16,000 jobs for youths between the ages of 14 and 24 from October 2009 to October 2010.

Meanwhile in Barbados, in 2011, while the overall unemployment rate was 11.2 percent, the youth unemployment rate was more than double that, at 28.9 percent. It is evident that youth are especially vulnerable to being out of a job during times of general economic hardship.

The problem here is that too many young people feel that they are “entitled” to a job from Government or some other institution.

Allow me for a moment to present you with a scenario. Let us say in 2013 1,800 students were enrolled in Dominica State College (DSC), now let us assume that in 2014 1,000 of those students will graduate. Out of that 1,000 let us make another assumption that 100 of them did Accounting and are now hoping to enter the world of work with their degree in hand.

Now this group of 100 will certainly expect that since they have endured the stresses of college life, their just reward would be a stable paying job which would aid them along the path of life.

Isn’t this what our parents taught us after all, to go to school, learn and get a job.

But, what this group of 100 Accounting majors will slowly realize after they have passed there resume around every bank, government department, etc, is that there are only a certain amount of accountants that a country can handle at a time.

Now, what happens to this group of 100 you may ask, sadly the majority of them will remain at home and call local radio stations and programs and say “the country tight”.

Then the cycle continues year after year after year.

What might be the solution to this enigma you might ask; there is one word for it - “ENTREPRENURSHIP.”

In political economics, entrepreneurship is a process of identifying and starting a business venture, sourcing and organizing the required resources and taking both the risks and rewards associated with the venture.
But, for the sake of this article let us say it is the ability to identify a problem faced by a large group of people and find a way to make a profit by solving it.

This, my friends, should be the future of our country. It is through this that we can take control of our financial destiny.

Now you may be asking, how can I be an entrepreneur when I do not have capital? Well my friends there are programs put in place to solve that problem.

Institutions such as the Dominica Youth Business Trust (DYBT) and the National Development Foundation of Dominica (NDFD) are waiting on young, aspiring entrepreneurs.

If after reading this you are still doubtful or second guessing yourself, then let me leave you with a few wise words from the immortal Nelson Mandela "It is always impossible."