IMF: Informal economy not enough to handle Africa's workforce explosion

LONDON (Reuters) - Unemployment in Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy, is running at more than 14 percent and climbing; in South Africa, the second largest economy, it is over 27 percent. For youth in both places, it is far more.

This may seem bad enough, but according to International Monetary Fund calculations the sub-Saharan Africa region's jobs travails are in danger of reaching uncharted territory in less than two decades.

That is, unless the economies can create jobs for their burgeoning, young population.

"By 2035, sub-Saharan Africa will have more working-age people than the rest of the world’s regions combined," the IMF wrote in a blog post this week. "This growing workforce will have to be met with jobs."

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