Artificial Intelligence can be a Solution to unending unemployment. In today’s society, it has become a difficult task to secure employment especially for those with minimum or no industry experience.
Opportunities in the emerging technology can never be exhausted, as a positive tool it can be used to encourage the youths to pursue digital entrepreneurship. Youths can now define, create and manage their own ventures – be it to maintain and service the technology itself through digital start-ups, online kiosks or even innovation of better industry solutions.
According to statistics from the International Labour Organisation, “the majority of youths regularly suffer from under-employment and lack decent working conditions. Of the 38.1 per cent estimated total working poor in sub-Saharan Africa, young people account for 23.5 per cent. Young girls tend to be more disadvantaged than young men in access to work and experience worse working conditions than their male counterpart, and employment in the informal economy or informal employment is the norm.”
With the digital economy taking over the world, this might be the untapped solution to unemployment. Africa is one of the fastest when it comes to internet consumption, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, there were 525 million internet users in Africa by July 2019.
For instance, In Kenya, according to the World Data Atlas, the unemployment rate of young adults at the age of 18-35 in 2018 stood at 11.4% which was an improvement from 11.5% in 2017 but still, there is a huge number of individuals going without employment.
It is estimated that the majority of Africans have already secured jobs online from transcription to software developers and there is a rising number of individuals pursuing the online space with an expectation to rise by 2020.
Impacting oneself with the right skills is essential to the market, currently, there are massive open online courses that the youths can access, courses like graphic design, photography and digital marketing are readily available on google that may lead to self-employment, this only needs discipline and patience.
Unemployment is a global catastrophe that needs drastic measures to be solved, taking concrete steps through digital technology can definitely help cultivate constructive solutions.
