The Learning Lunch podcast explores ideas, approaches and social innovations – creating opportunity for non-profit organisations’ teams to discover what others are learning and space to reflect on what these insights might mean for their own strategy and programme implementation.
Some assumptions are hard to shake, especially when they feel intuitive. Take the idea that economic growth is the primary driver of job creation — an argument that politicians have long made. But data is increasingly telling a different story. Growth can happen without a rise in new jobs, a phenomenon known as “jobless growth”, where the economy produces value — counted as GDP — but employment doesn’t go up1 https://dgmt.co.za/op-ed-the-work-that-markets-miss-and-why-its-so-important-to-employ-people-to-do-this-work/ . In South Africa, labour force data since 2008 shows that economic growth is decoupled from youth employment — it doesn’t translate into jobs for young people2 https://www.harambee.co.za/firing-on-all-cylinders-a-joint-approach-to-tackling-youth-unemployment/ .
Even when the economy grows, the formal sector isn’t able to create enough jobs for the people who need them. Not even rapid growth can close this gap. So, if growth isn’t the answer, what is? Bringing down youth unemployment requires a combination of interventions across a young person’s journey, including state-funded public employment programmes, which act as a support scaffold for those in low-income communities.
In this podcast, we challenge assumptions about youth unemployment with Dr Kate Philip, Programme Lead at the Presidential Employment Stimulus, and explore why she thinks public employment programmes should be here to stay.
Dr Kate Philip is the Programme Lead on the Presidential Employment Stimulus in South Africa, which has rolled out mass public employment programmes as well as livelihood and enterprise support measures to over 2,5 million people since it started during the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020. In 2020, she also led the initial process which made the policy case for the Social Relief of Distress Grant. Through the ILO, Dr Philip supported the Government of Greece in the design of a public employment programme during the Greek crisis. She is also author of a book called ‘Markets on the Margins’, reflecting on her experiences supporting enterprise development in marginalized contexts.
Here are some complementary bites to make your meal even tastier
