South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. The official rate is 32%, rising to 42% when discouraged job seekers are included. Among young people aged 15 to 24, unemployment reaches a staggering 60%. While much attention has focused on youth exclusion from the labour market and their survival strategies, far less is said about their experiences in precarious jobs, or why some choose to leave low-wage employment.
Across South Africa, young people are encouraged by the government, NGOs and society to accept unpaid internships, precarious apprenticeships and low-wage jobs on the assumption that these opportunities will lead to better employment. Those who quit or refuse low wage jobs are sometimes derided by employers as “lazy” or “choosy”.
In 2015 and 2016 I conducted in-depth interviews and a survey with 100 young people (aged 18-35) in the settlement of Zandspruit, near Johannesburg, for my PhD (unpublished). What they told me was that the wage work available to them did not offer a pathway to a dignified life.
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Their stories challenge society to rethink the relationship between work, dignity and citizenship. Addressing youth unemployment requires more than increasing job numbers. It demands improving job quality and recognising the aspirations of those without work.
My journal article, based on the PhD research, challenges the assumption that wage employment automatically leads to economic and social inclusion.
Work around Zandspruit
Established in the early 1990s as a small informal settlement, Zandspruit now houses over 50,000 residents within a two kilometre radius. Its unplanned expansion reflects its strategic location near new economic hubs, shaped by the shift from an industrial to a service-based economy.
Most low-end service jobs in surrounding suburbs, malls and industrial hubs offer neither financial security nor routes to what the men in my study saw as respectable adulthood.
I asked the men about their movement in and out of wage work, job experiences and work trajectories. Most had only held low-wage service jobs, which they ranked hierarchically: manual labour at the bottom, followed by hospitality and cleaning, with security and retail slightly better. Over half (57%) had never stayed in a job for more than a year. Many lasted only weeks or months.
Short-term contracts were the leading cause of job loss (35%), followed by voluntary quitting (18%) — often due to low wages — and retrenchment (15%). While temporary contracts and retrenchments explain half of all job losses, voluntary quitting is a striking trend in a country with such high unemployment.
To understand these departures, I interviewed 37 young people, mainly young men, who had left wage work in 2015-2016. They cited exploitative conditions, workplace racism, and financial and social pressures as key reasons. Their decisions reflect not just dissatisfaction with low wages but a deeper aspiration for dignity, social recognition and economic progress. Work, they insisted, should offer more than basic survival.
Why young men refuse low-wage work
All the young men I interviewed had cycled through low-paying jobs as security guards, cashiers, golf caddies, petrol attendants and call centre agents. Over half had quit because of dissatisfaction or exploitation.
The most common reason for quitting was exploitative labour conditions. They spoke of employers bypassing minimum benefits, withholding pay and making unfair deductions. Contracts were rarely made permanent. More than just poor wages or bad working conditions, these jobs offered little prospect of social mobility. Some felt that no matter how hard they worked, they would never earn enough to improve their lives or achieve what they saw as key markers of respected manhood, like marriage, establishing a home and supporting a family.
Eric, who had moved on from low-end jobs to run a small IT business from home, put it simply:
When you look for a job, you don’t look for one that will drain you. You need a job that will build you so you have a future tomorrow.
His words reflect a common view: young men do not judge jobs solely by their ability to provide a means of survival, but by whether they offer a path to stability, dignity and a better future.
Workplace racism and mistreatment were also factors. Many young men recounted being undermined, insulted or unfairly treated by their superiors. The workplace became a direct encounter with South Africa’s racialised inequalities, where almost all low-wage workers are black and most employers and business owners are white.
Thatho, who quit a retail job after six months, described his frustration:
That guy [boss] is yelling at me for five days. On the sixth day I realised it’s too much. I can’t do this. I’m trying my best … It’s better if I left the company cause it’s painful when you work hard and someone says you’re not doing anything.
Being disrespected in the workplace takes a psychological and emotional toll. For some, quitting was a way to reclaim respect and a degree of autonomy.
Young men faced financial and social pressures, shaped by the male breadwinner ideal, to improve their own lives and support their families. This responsibility often motivated young men to take up or keep jobs, but it also led some to leave. Some quit in search of better-paying jobs. Others quit to escape the social demands tied to earning a wage.
One young man, who struggled to send his son to a good crèche, keep his girlfriend happy and support his unemployed siblings, explained:
Even though I’m working, I’m always left with nothing […] sometimes I feel like I’m drowning.
The inability of low-wage jobs to meet both personal and social expectations drove some to make a living in the informal economy.
Rethinking work and citizenship
Wage labour, often idealised as a path to inclusion and citizenship, falls short for many South Africans. By rejecting such jobs, these young men challenge the notion that “any job is better than no job” and assert their right to economic participation on fair and dignified terms.
Hannah J. Dawson received funding from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and the National Research Foundation.
