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Paper short abstract:

The paper is based on a mixed-methods study on labour market participation of young people in urban Sierra Leone. It examines the ways in which young people exercise their agency in the context of precarious employment, gender inequality, chronic poverty and political and economic instability.

Paper long abstract:

Youth un- and underemployment remains one of the biggest challenges of the world today. While there is a significant body of literature on the economic side of the problem, it is still little known about the perspectives of young people on their lives and work experiences. Youth´s agency remains under-addressed, and discourses of vulnerability remain dominant in the literature. This paper aims to challenge this trend. It is based on a mixed-methods study on labour market participation of young people in urban Sierra Leone that was co-designed by young people themselves. The paper examines the ways in which Sierra Leonean young people exercise their agency in the context of precarious employment, gender inequality, chronic poverty and political and economic instability. By studying experiences of young people in coping with the difficulties of finding and keeping a job, the paper highlights how agency is related to generational orders and social status and is mediated by gender and ethnicity.