Determinants of youth unemployment in Uganda: Binomial Logit Model Approach

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to determine the factors responsible for the youth unemployment in Uganda. The data for this study was obtained from the Uganda National Household Survey 2016/17 collected by Uganda National Bureau of Statistics. A binary logistic regression method was employed to analyze a sample of 5,912 respondents for the ages between 18-30 years. The results obtained from the analysis of binary logistic regression indicate that sex, region, residence, education level, age and marital status significantly influence youth employment status in Uganda while health was not important in the model. The findings of the study indicated that Ugandan youth who attended post-secondary education are more unemployed compared to those with no education. An increase in age decreases unemployment level while the married youth have less chances of being unemployed as compared to the divorced ones. The study also showed that northern youth faced lower unemployment rate compared to other regions and urban youth increased their chances of unemployment compared to the rural ones. Finally males had the possibility to increase the chance of remaining in unemployment. It is therefore from this that we recommend that government should put in place affirmative action measures such as extra training, sensitization of potential employers to enable males compete favourably with females in the labour market.