Paper short abstract:

Optimistic images of the African Boom gloss over critical stresses of expanding informality and youth unemployment. This paper will consider the realities beneath the surface of labour market optimism, and the extent to which they are being eased or exacerbates by globalization.

Paper long abstract:

Images of an 'African Boom' have presented us with labour markets full of dynamic potential: a declining dependency ratio, low levels of unemployment, and a vibrant middle class. This buoyant view of African labour markets conceals a less encouraging reality of catastrophic youth unemployment and expanding informality, creating a 'youth bulge' that is more of a threat than an opportunity. How does the continent with the largest share of informal labour in the world become a beacon of prosperity? Whose prosperity are we talking about? As Chinese firms and the Bottom of the Pyramid strategies of MNCs penetrate African informal economies, are we witnessing the global integration of African informal labour, or an increasingly unstable process of 'adverse incorporation'? This paper will explore the reality beneath the outbreak of labour market optimism, and consider why African labour markets are being painted in such rosy colours.