Youth Labour Market Participation and Sectoral Choices in Côte d'Ivoire

Several employment options are available to job seekers in Côte d’Ivoire. Four employment options are offered according to the market structure. This makes reference to the public sector, formal private sector, non-agricultural informal sector, and the agricultural informal sector. This study aims at analysing the determinants for youth labour market participation and sectoral choices. The data is drawn from the National Survey on the Employment Situation and Child Labour (ENSETE) conducted in 2013 by the Agency for Studies and Job Promotion (AGEPE). In this study, two econometric tools have been used. The binary probit model by selection reveals that age, gender and place of residence impacts negatively the participation of the youth in the labour market. The individual multinomial probit model underlines the negative influence of gender on employment in the formal sectors (public sector and formal private sector). However, the young women have up to 18% chance of being absorbed in the non-agricultural informal sector. In the event that the urban area is conducive for all sorts of economic activities, the young women’s chances increase to more than 50% in terms of their likelihood to conduct non-agricultural informal businesses. The probability of a youth getting employed in public or non-agricultural formal sectors decreases as he or she continues to age. These phenomena create employability problem as underscored by the outcomes obtained with the duration of unemployment period