Youth Unemployment and Resilience in Eastern Sudan: Challenges, Opportunities and Pathways amid Crisis

This study investigates youth unemployment in Eastern Sudan using primary data from 385 respondents aged 15–24, alongside secondary data from the 2022 Sudan Labor Market Panel Survey (SLMPS), with particular focus on the repercussions of the April 15, 2023 war. The analysis indicates that the post-war unemployment reached 75.32%, with 83.1% of respondents experiencing long-term joblessness — a sharp rise from the pre-war rate of 24.66% recorded in the SLMPS. Major contributing factors include a 46.33% job loss rate, a 44.26% decline in employability, and a 26.56% shift toward informal work. The socioeconomic consequences are severe, encompassing educational disruptions (80.8%), housing loss (28.1%), food shortages (26.2%), health problems (22.9%), and psychological trauma (14.0%), all of which heighten vulnerability. Logistic regression results indicate that age, gender, and urban residency significantly influence unemployment, while internet access reduces the likelihood of joblessness by 14.0%. Resilience analysis reveals that 47.53% of youth exhibit no coping capacity, while only 27.01% demonstrate high resilience through entrepreneurial or multifaceted strategies. Urban residents and internally displaced persons display relatively stronger adaptive capacity—driven by access to networks, informal markets, and digital tools—whereas refugees and rural youth remain most fragile. Policy recommendations emphasize stimulating labor demand through local investment, expanding digital literacy, promoting gender-inclusive education, and integrating resilience-building interventions to foster youth adaptability and sustainable recovery in Eastern Sudan.