Jobless youth ‘a time bomb’

YOUNG people in Namibia account for 60 per cent of Namibia’s unemployed.

This is among the main findings of a two-year study of the Namibian Labour market carried out by the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI). The survey puts the country’s overall jobless rate at 34 per cent, with young people under the age of 25 most affected.About 40 per cent of the country’s women are also not working.Referring to the number of unemployed youths, the head of LaRRI, Herbert Jauch, said:”This is a time bomb waiting to explode.”Jauch was speaking at the launch of the survey in Windhoek yesterday.Low salaries, lack of benefits and work pressure are identified as the biggest problems in the Namibian labour market, while discrimination and inequalities are perceived to be still prevalent, though with some improvements.About 70 per cent of workers interviewed earn less than N$3 000 a month, while less than 10 per cent earn N$6 000 or more.This, LaRRI says, illustrates huge levels of inequality regarding wages and benefits.But most households, with an average size of five people, have a total income of N$3 000 a month and rely on mainly one breadwinner for their survival.LaRRI discovered “alarmingly” low levels of knowledge among workers on the key legislation affecting the labour market, such as the Labour Act (1992), Social Security Act (1994) and the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act of 1998.Jauch blamed workers’ unions for having failed their members in this regard.”The unions must pull up their socks on this matter, otherwise we deny our members basic knowledge and their rights,” he warned.The study also found a high level of awareness on the HIV-AIDS pandemic among the workers.However, only about half of all employers take any action to fight the disease.”Few employers provide counselling services and almost none provide any financial assistance for their employees with HIV-AIDS,” LaRRI says.The report notes that the majority of Namibian companies lack comprehensive training programmes for their workers despite frequent complaints by employers about lack of skilled manpower.”There is no comprehensive programme of skills development at most Namibian workplaces which severely undermines the full utilisation of the country’s human resources,” the report says.According to the survey, half of the workers polled received training at their workplaces, but this only occurred at the start of their jobs.Only one in four workers received ongoing training.”This is a major setback in terms of human resources development,” Jauch warned.LaRRI further found that in instances where training occurred it did not automatically lead to promotions or salary increases – instead workers believe that decisive factors for increases and promotions were duration of service, managers’ opinion and job performance.”It is interesting to note, however, that almost 90 per cent of workers believe that job performance does not influence promotions and salary increases at their workplaces,” the Institute stresses.The survey puts the country’s overall jobless rate at 34 per cent, with young people under the age of 25 most affected.About 40 per cent of the country’s women are also not working.Referring to the number of unemployed youths, the head of LaRRI, Herbert Jauch, said:”This is a time bomb waiting to explode.”Jauch was speaking at the launch of the survey in Windhoek yesterday.Low salaries, lack of benefits and work pressure are identified as the biggest problems in the Namibian labour market, while discrimination and inequalities are perceived to be still prevalent, though with some improvements.About 70 per cent of workers interviewed earn less than N$3 000 a month, while less than 10 per cent earn N$6 000 or more.This, LaRRI says, illustrates huge levels of inequality regarding wages and benefits.But most households, with an average size of five people, have a total income of N$3 000 a month and rely on mainly one breadwinner for their survival.LaRRI discovered “alarmingly” low levels of knowledge among workers on the key legislation affecting the labour market, such as the Labour Act (1992), Social Security Act (1994) and the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act of 1998.Jauch blamed workers’ unions for having failed their members in this regard.”The unions must pull up their socks on this matter, otherwise we deny our members basic knowledge and their rights,” he warned.The study also found a high level of awareness on the HIV-AIDS pandemic among the workers.However, only about half of all employers take any action to fight the disease.”Few employers provide counselling services and almost none provide any financial assistance for their employees with HIV-AIDS,” LaRRI says.The report notes that the majority of Namibian companies lack comprehensive training programmes for their workers despite frequent complaints by employers about lack of skilled manpower.”There is no comprehensive programme of skills development at most Namibian workplaces which severely undermines the full utilisation of the country’s human resources,” the report says.According to the survey, half of the workers polled received training at their workplaces, but this only occurred at the start of their jobs.Only one in four workers received ongoing training.”This is a major setback in terms of human resources development,” Jauch warned.LaRRI further found that in instances where training occurred it did not automatically lead to promotions or salary increases – instead workers believe that decisive factors for increases and promotions were duration of service, managers’ opinion and job performance.”It is interesting to note, however, that almost 90 per cent of workers believe that job performance does not influence promotions and salary increases at their workplaces,” the Institute stresses.