In this interview conducted at the 2014 PAA meeting, David Lam discusses the relationship between the “youth bulge” and unemployment rates and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and looks at key policy implications. Given the current situation, Lam says that “in the next 20 years, sub-Saharan Africa is going to need over a million jobs a month to keep employment rates at current levels. There’s nothing that can be done about that. Those people are already born. So that’s a challenge that needs to be met… through education, through having flexible labor markets, having good economic policies – all the things that are good for economies to do.”

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