Africa – Most of the world’s jobseekers will be there in the next 20 years

Globally, the number of people eager to get earning continues to grow year on year, and a new report from the IMF shows that in the next 20 years, most of the world’s jobseekers will be in Africa. 

“As both infant mortality and fertility rates decline, sub-Saharan Africa will become the main source of new entrants into the global labor force,” the report reads. “In fact, by 2035, the number of Africans joining the working age population (ages 15–64) will exceed that from the rest of the world combined.”

These are big figures. While over 10 million people are currently joining the African labor market each year, the U.S. labor force is projected to increase by a similar amount in the next decade. And population statistics show that between 2012 and 2037, the UK’s working population will grow by 4.8 million. In Sub-Saharan Africa in 2035, there will be an extra 100 million people reaching the working age.

Put another way, the working age population of Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to triple to 1.25 billion by 2050. But, when it comes to growth of the global labor force as a whole, expectations point towards a slowdown. The IMF says growth will be at less than 1% a year in the 2020s, compared with 1.7% annually during the 1990s.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Job-seekers will mostly come from one continent – CNN.com.