South Africa’s youth unemployment rate is one of the highest in the world and is a concern to
both economists and policy-makers. What is particularly concerning is the disparity in
unemployment rates among the different population groups. Previous studies on youth
unemployment have attributed the high unemployment rate in South Africa to a lack of
necessary skills in the economy and the fact that a large proportion of the population gains
university qualifications for career paths that have few employment opportunities. This latter
fact contributes to the high unemployment rate among graduates. Thus, this article endeavours
to determine whether identity influences this choice. This is done by using a survey to
determine the cultural traits of young black South African University students and then
applying a multinomial logit model to determine whether these cultural traits influence the
selection of the fields of study and, by implication, the career choice. The fields of study
considered are financial sciences, humanities, law, management, and sciences. The more
popular choices are then compared with the fields with the highest unemployment rates to
establish whether there is a link.
The results show that some cultural traits do indeed influence career choice; but, they also
reveal that career choice alone does not influence youth unemployment rates. The results
further show that such fields as sciences could have more graduates; but, factors such as
experience have a bigger influence on whether or not these graduates will find employment.