South Africa Economic Outlook: In search of the lost demographic dividend

By PwC

We’re pleased to share our ninth South Africa Economic Outlook report for 2023.

Our economic scenarios for South Africa suggest that the youth unemployment rate will continue to rise unless we do something different. As a society, we need to find the country’s lost demographic dividend that could have come from having more young people in jobs, and the benefit that this could have on social stability, household income and the economy as a whole.

South Africa needs to invest in its young people in preparing them for the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow. This, in turn, will lead to greater economic growth and shared prosperity across geographies and sectors. The scale and speed needed to address this requires a radical approach that is focused on empowering a massive number of new entrepreneurs at community level. We believe that entrepreneurialism needs to permeate through all our townships and cities.

In this report, we conduct a simulation that brings the current youth and graduate unemployment rates back to the levels seen in 2008. This scenario – with the demographic dividend coming to fruition – would see an extra 1.8 million jobs for young South Africans. To achieve this requires a different kind of public and private sector leadership to help the entrepreneurship ecosystem flourish.

Key content in this report includes:

– Demographic shifts: Megatrends are impacting the social stability challenges that the world (and South Africa) faces.

– Macroeconomic outlook: Youth unemployment is set to continue rising – unless we do something different.

– Finding the lost demographic dividend: An estimated R137 billion in extra household income if we could get the youth unemployment rate back to 2008 levels.

– Closing the employment gap: Entrepreneurialism needs to permeate through all our townships and cities.

– Taking the lead: Leadership skills needed to help the entrepreneurship ecosystem flourish.

– How PwC is helping its clients make a positive societal impact in South Africa, and also how we are involved in upskilling and entrepreneurship programmes in the country.

Download the full report here