Report: Young women risk being left behind as Africa’s job market shifts to services

Africa’s transition to a services-led economy is reshaping youth employment, but a new report warns that the shift is widening gender gaps, leaving many young women excluded from the continent’s fastest-growing opportunities.

The Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026 finds that while services are expanding and expected to surpass agriculture as the largest employer of young Africans by 2033, young men are capturing a growing share of jobs in the sectors driving growth.

Meanwhile, many young women remain concentrated in lower-productivity activities or are excluded from the labour market entirely.

“Young men are gaining a larger share of employment in Africa’s fastest-growing sectors, industry and services, while young women’s share is rising in agriculture even as the sector itself declines,” the report notes.

The shift reflects deeper structural inequalities. Although the services sector is projected to grow 2.4 times between 2015 and 2040 compared with agriculture’s 1.3 times, access to higher-quality service jobs often depends on education, skills, and urban mobility—areas where women continue to face disadvantages.

Women who do enter services are often concentrated in the most informal and lowest-paid segments. The report shows that 43 per cent of employed young women worked in services in 2025, compared with 36 per cent of young men, but many of these roles were in household work, food services, and other vulnerable subsectors.

Unpaid care work remains a major barrier. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, 28 per cent of women outside the labour force cite care responsibilities as the main reason for not working, compared with just 3 per cent of men.

“Unpaid care responsibilities remain a key constraint on women’s labour force participation,” the report says, highlighting childcare and domestic duties as one of the biggest structural obstacles to women’s economic inclusion.

The consequences are evident in labour market participation. Women account for nearly 61 per cent—about 62 million—of young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET), underscoring the scale of gender exclusion across the continent.

Education gaps compound the problem. As economies shift toward services and industry, demand for specialised skills is rising, yet only about 9 per cent of African youth have completed tertiary education.

Lower higher-education attainment among young women limits their ability to move into higher-productivity sectors such as digital services, finance, and professional roles.

The labour shift is also unfolding alongside rapid urbanisation. Youth employment is increasingly moving from rural areas into cities, where service jobs are concentrated.

However, mobility constraints, safety concerns, and social norms continue to restrict many young women from accessing urban labour markets.

Despite these challenges, the services transition presents a major opportunity. Service-sector jobs are more likely to be formal—about 22 per cent compared with just 3 per cent in agriculture—and young people working in services earn on average 2.6 times more than those in agriculture.

The report cautions that without deliberate policy action, the shift could deepen inequalities rather than reduce them.

“Realising this potential will depend on whether growth generates jobs, informal work becomes more productive and secure, young women are able to fully participate in labour markets, and education systems equip youth with skills aligned to a services-led economy,” it states.

Experts recommend expanding childcare and care services, keeping girls in school through secondary and tertiary levels, improving access to vocational and digital skills training, and addressing legal and financial barriers that limit women’s access to land, credit, and business opportunities.

Africa’s youth population, currently about 532 million, is expected to keep growing for decades, giving the continent a rare demographic advantage. The report warns that the “youth dividend” will only translate into shared prosperity if gender gaps are addressed early.

“The choices made today will determine whether Africa’s youth dividend becomes a foundation for shared prosperity,” the report concludes.