Young South Africans are calling it quits

Young South Africans are more willing to emigrate than their global counterparts.
Despite many foreign nationals choosing South Africa as a retirement destination, including those from the UK, China, Germany and the USA, the inverse is also taking place, where young South Africans are looking to leave the country.
Pnet contributed to the recent Decoding Global Talent survey, which showed interesting mobility trends comparing global and regional preferences, views, and expectations regarding working abroad.
Globally, young professionals (up to 30 years old) are the most mobile, with 73% willing to move abroad for work, compared to the average of 63%.
South Africa has a much higher mobility rate than the global average, with 79.5% of South African respondents stating that they’d be willing to move and work abroad.
This number shoots to 84% when considering young South Africans.
44% of young South African respondents also stated that they are actively looking for work abroad.
“Naturally, young South Africans are likely to be more adaptable than older professionals and have fewer strings attached,” said Pnet.
“At this stage of their lives, they are less likely to have a family to support or home-owner bond and other such expenses to pay.
“In addition, young South Africans are facing high unemployment rates.”
Although South Africa’s official unemployment rate stands at 32.9%, the current youth (15 to 34 years) unemployment rate is far worse at 45.5%
There are 5.9 million young South Africans currently working, compared to 4.9 million.
“Combined with the thirst to explore something new, it’s understandable that young South Africans are more open to work opportunities outside the country.”
Young South Africans said that their own career growth was the most important reason for working abroad.
59% of respondents said that “general career considerations” would make them consider working abroad.
In addition, 57% of young South Africans said that better educational or training opportunities are a reason to take up a job outside South Africa.
Young South Africans are thus clearly focused on building their career and expertise.
On the other hand, over 60% of South Africans above the age of 30 years selected “Financial and economic reasons” as well as a “Concrete job offer” as the top reasons to work abroad.
Thus, when looking at the motivating factors of South Africans above the age of 30, it becomes clear that securing a lucrative income is most important to the older generations when pondering leaving South Africa.
Notably, there is no major difference between the youth and South African respondents older than 30 years when asked how long they intend to work abroad
Over 50% of South African respondents said that they’d consider working abroad over the medium- to long term.
Between 13% and 15% only want to work abroad over the short term (for a maximum of three years.)
“Comparing the South African youth to the youth globally, there is a slight difference indicating that South Africans are more open to work and move abroad permanently,” said Pnet.
“However, 68% of young South Africans do intend to come back to their home country after working abroad.”
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