Youth unemployment continues to be a burden and concern for the South African
government. Being economically insecure, the situation is dire with government
needing to provide resources to a population who should be economically
independent. There is need to look at the social determinants of economic
insecurity among youth in South Africa. Family formations could either promote
or inhibit economic wellbeing. The aim of this paper is to assess if economic
security improves as youth enter into unions and/or have children. The South
African NIDS is used. Unmarried youth with no children are measured at baseline
(2008) and followed- up over time to examine if economic security status changes
as union status changes. Results show that while economic security, permanent
employment (3.77%-8.2%) and net income increases over time (1.79%-4.63%), youth
who marry but have no children have the lowest risk of economic insecurity
(RRR= 0.004, p-value<0.05) compared to those who remain unmarried but have
children. Special attention needs to be given to youth who have children and are
unmarried and among those who marry and have children soon after.