The job openings for youths are in their numbers even though many of them; in fact, the majority remains jobless. This, empirically speaking, is a serious contradiction. It is probably because of this situation that the sixth International Forum on jobs and employment organised in Yaounde yesterday focused on identifying potential areas where youths can easily grab jobs. These are innovating sectors, some of which are in the ICT, agriculture, entrepreneurship, energy, transport, mining, tourism and hotel management sectors. In spite of their existence, many youths remain uninformed. The forum which brought together unemployed youths and heads of enterprises among others hammered on the need to inform young Cameroonians on how to get jobs and the most suitable areas.

The International Labour Organization in its 2013 report puts unemployment rate in Cameroon at 30 per cent while that of underemployment stands at 75 per cent. Worthy of note is the fact that Cameroon has an estimated population of almost 25 million people with about 250.000 in the public sector. With the government being the highest employer, it therefore implies that about11.8 million who are not employed by the government is a cause to raise eyebrows. The government has been doing its best to provide all legal utilities for schools to go operational and train as many youths as possible. Ironically, there are no jobs to receive these youths after their training in school. The absence of jobs puzzles many a Cameroonian especially when one knows that the country is full of potentials.

If there are no jobs for youths in Cameroon, it is certainly because the private sector is virtually dormant. Cameroonians from independence have been made to understand that the State is the main employer. That was possible in the days past with a tiny population where graduates were few. In fact, cases abound where people leaving primary school immediately grabbed jobs and juicy ones for that matter. Today, the situation is different with post graduates languishing in the streets of unemployment. The first blame has often been on the type of training received in school, trainings that negate jobs, training that have no specific job orientation. But of late, several vocational schools have mushroomed and are graduating many youths that are ripe for the job market. Where then is the trouble?

Youths from every indication have their own share of the blame. In education, it doesn’t suffice to obtain a certificate. What is much more important is how to put the talent to use. Many young people continue to languish in the job market because of lack of information on where to grab one. Some who make spotty efforts to look for jobs land on those that do not tie with their training; as a result they end up not having the job satisfaction they would have liked. In effect, there are new opportunities coming up but the trouble is how to get the information on them. Many youths are not enthusiastic in reading newspapers, listening to radio or watching TV programmes that broadcast information on jobs. It is often said, that the best place to hide information in Cameroon is in the newspaper. And so opportunities slip off their fingers just because they lack the zeal to look for information.