In Simple Words
Imagine a delivery company that requires every driver applicant to show a five-year clean driving record before handing them the keys to a van. Because teenagers entering the workforce have zero years of driving history, the vans sit parked in the lot empty while young applicants stand outside wondering why their newly earned driver's licenses are being ignored.
Two sides of the Addis market in 2019
- Professional vacancies
- 59% required at least 2 years' experience
- Job-seeker expectations
- 50% thought no experience was needed
Separate firm and job-seeker surveys about high-skilled jobs. These are different categories—two or more years required versus none expected—not a causal comparison.
See source →Research question
Young jobseekers entering the labor market lack formal work histories, creating asymmetric uncertainty for recruiters. In response, formal firms impose strict prior-experience prerequisites for entry-level professional roles, while young applicants erroneously assume educational degrees alone are sufficient.
Participants
N = 473 formal firms and N = 779 young jobseekers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Study Design
Dyadic regression analysis of firm meeting requests and employer belief elicitation comparing stated hiring criteria with jobseeker perceptions.
Results
34.38% of firm managers cited "insufficient work experience" as their primary reason for not hiring candidates met at job fairs (the single most cited reason), while 59% of firm professional vacancies required 2 or more years of formal experience compared to jobseekers where 50% believed no experience was necessary for high-skilled roles.
Takeaway
Establish standardized internship bridges or objective workplace competency credentials for young jobseekers to substitute for unavailable formal work experience.