Youth Unemployment Rate in South Africa increased to 52.40 percent in the first quarter of 2018 from 51.10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017. Youth Unemployment Rate in South Africa averaged 51.93 percent from 2013 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 55.90 percent in the second quarter of 2017 and a record low of 48.80 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.

As part of Youth Month celebrations, the Gauteng provincial government has urged high school pupils, unemployed youth and graduates to attend the fourth annual Youth Expo to get connected to jobs and business opportunities.

The Youth Employment Service, an initiative between business, government, labour, civil society and young people, was launched in March 2018 in Johannesburg.

Under the programme, businesses will create one-year paid positions for youth aged between 18 and 35 with a minimum paid stipend of R3,500 a month.

Those businesses which do not have the capacity to place more people in their organisations have the option of sponsoring the salary for a one-year placement in small and medium enterprises or to help young people start and grow their own businesses through seed funding.

Ramaphosa said that the Youth Employment Service was a timely, worthy and ambitious response to youth unemployment in the country, saying that the issue was perhaps the greatest and most pressing social and economic challenge facing South Africa at this moment in history.

The Gauteng province will also host National Youth Day celebrations on June 16, with President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing young people at the Orlando Stadium, after the Thuma Mina Walk from Morris Isaacson High School to the Hector Pieterson Memorial.

Be sure to keep your ears on the ground and your eyes peeled as a young person this youth month and take advantage of all opportunities available for the youth of South Africa. Do not procrastinate, there is no excuse..