Cultivating early stage entrepreneurship to solve the problem of youth unemployment

Abstract

Youth unemployment is a major concern for societies all around the world. Not only do unemployed youth represent a growing risk to social stability, they also pose a considerable economic predicament. Unemployed young people tend to continue being unemployed into adulthood and cannot be consumers of the future or contribute meaningfully to economic development. The purpose of this research was to establish, empirically, if total early stage entrepreneurship (TEA) is a viable solution for solving the problem of youth unemployment. Using the indicators of TEA from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor s (GEM) 2015 Global Report, this report analyses (a) the influence of TEA on job creation and (b) the intensity of Human Development (HDI), per capita incomes (GDP Per Capita), Social Welfare (SWI) as well as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) (independent variables) on TEA (dependent variable). The influence of the independent variables was analysed using the method of correlation and regression analysis. Results from this study indicate that TEA is a necessary but insufficient contributor to youth employment. Results were discussed with cognisance to existing literature on labour economics, entrepreneurship and motivation. Based on the findings, recommendations are made on how TEA can be cultivated to solve the problem of youth unemployment and a model is proposed on how to influence TEA levels in different contexts.