Navigating urban labour markets: youth experiences in Sierra Leone

Youth underemployment and unemployment remain among the biggest challenges in the world today. While there is a significant body of literature on the economic side of the problem, little is known about the perspectives of young people on their lives and work experiences. Youth´s agency remains under-addressed, while discourses of vulnerability remain dominant in the literature. This paper contributes to the discussion on youth (under)employment by examining the strategies young people use to find work and sustain their livelihoods in three urban centres in Sierra Leone. It explores how young people navigate urban labour markets and highlights the ways in which they exercise their agency and pursue their chosen career paths in the restricted contexts of limited job opportunities, poverty and lack of education and skills.