DETERMINANTS OF URBAN YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT: THE CASE OF GUDER TOWN, WESTERN SHOA ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Despite numerous interventions by government and development partners, youth unemployment has remained an intractable challenge in Ethiopia. It creates many social- economic problems in the economy of the country. This study however aimed to identifying the determinants of urban youth unemployment. The study adopted a cross sectional data of urban youth employmentunemployment. The town was purposively selected from the town of west shoa zones. The primary data was collected from 91 sample respondents through interview questionnaire from Guder town proportionally. A descriptive and econometric analysis was employed to meet the main objective of the study. The descriptive analyses results revealed that about 61.5 % of the youth are unemployed while 38.6 % are employed. Regression results from a binary logit model estimation show that sex, educational level, marital status, skill match and access to credit use of youth are found to be the significant determinants to urban youth unemployment while family prosperity and market information were statistically insignificant to urban youth unemployment in the town. The econometric results suggested the need for the government go aboard on creating jobs through identify employment opportunities and industrialization of agriculture. It also recommended that the government should facilitate formalization of familiar employment which reduces the problem of youth unemployment especially on skilled and educated youth and all secondary schools should have active partnership with employers. As well as government made to increase the availability of initial working capital, the identification of profitable (market gap) business areas and provision of practical training for urban youths to be engaged at their own business.