Background Africa hosts the world’s largest youth cohort, yet its labour markets remain characterised by structural imbalances, agricultural dependence, gender inequalities, and educational credential mismatches. This study provides a comprehensive, cross-national analysis of youth labour market participation across all 53 African Union member states in 2026, disaggregated by sex, age group, economic sector, and educational attainment. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive-correlational analysis was conducted using International Labour Organisation ( ILO ) harmonised modelled estimates for the 15–35 age cohort. Youth unemployment rates ( YUR ), labour force participation rates ( LFPR ), and notinemployment,educationortraining ( NEET ) rates were computed by country, sub-region, sex, age group, and education level. Pearson’s correlation coefficient tested the association between YUR and NEET rate at country level. Results Of 545.1 million African youth aged 15–35, 311.5 million (57.1%) were employed, 23.1 million (4.2%) unemployed, 81.7 million (15.0%) inactive, and 128.8 million (23.6%) in education. The continental YUR was 6.91%; North Africa recorded 11.09% versus 6.40% in sub-Saharan Africa. Country-level YUR ranged from 0.4% (Niger) to 37.4% (Eswatini). The NEET rate reached 19.23% (104.8 million youth). Agriculture dominated employment (45.9%). Female YUR (7.56%) exceeded male YUR (6.40%). Upper secondary and tertiary graduates accounted for 52.7% of unemployment. A strong positive correlation existed between YUR and NEET rate ( r = 0.720, p = 0.001). Conclusions African youth labour markets exhibit pronounced heterogeneity, structural informality, and credential–employment mismatches. Targeted policies addressing structural transformation, skills alignment, gender equity, and social protection are urgently required.
Maizzou et al. (Wed,) studied this question.