Mbabane – Persistent high youth unemployment levels in Eswatini should serve as a warning that the country’s economic model is no longer viable as it fails to deliver inclusive growth, local economist Sanele Sibiya said.
Speaking on Eswatini TV’s Kusile Breakfast Show, Sibiya argued that unemployment should be treated as the most critical economic red flag in 2026, requiring urgent structural reforms and shifts from the government-led to a vibrant private sector-led economy.
According to Sibiya, the former is unable to generate sufficient jobs, largely because public-sector dominance has crowded private enterprise, limiting investments and innovation to absorb labour.
“We need a strong private sector that can absorb labour currently in government, as well as the unemployed who are sitting on the ground,” he said. “That requires serious commitment to structural transformation.
“For sustainable growth and meaningful job creation, the private sector must lead. At the moment, it is simply not operating at the scale required to absorb the unemployed.”
He explained that the country remains trapped in a cycle where a large public-sector wage bill consumes fiscal resources. There is little room for the government to stimulate growth or support job creation initiatives.
This, Sibiya said, has weakened the economy’s ability to expand and create employment opportunities.
He noted that the situation is further compounded by the constrained fiscal position. With the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio estimated at about 43 percent, the government faces rising debt-servicing costs and limited capacity to borrow for development spending.
“The government is in a quagmire,” he said. “It cannot spend its way out of the problem, yet the private sector is too weak to drive growth and employment.”
Turning specifically to youth unemployment, Sibiya said the crisis is driven by both limited job creation and mismatches between education outcomes and labour market needs.
“It’s a mix of both,” he said, adding, “In some cases, there are simply no jobs. In others, young people do not have the skills required by the economy.”
He stressed that for unemployment levels to meaningfully decline, the economy would need to grow at rates exceeding five percent consistently over several years. However, he cautioned that economic growth alone would not suffice; it must be accompanied by intentional reforms aimed at broadening the productive base of the economy.
Sibiya called for a comprehensive approach that includes strengthening private-sector capacity, reforming the education and training system, and transforming the structure of the economy to support new industries and value-adding activities.
He concluded that unless Eswatini urgently addresses the root causes of unemployment, the country risks continued economic stagnation, rising social pressures, and a lost generation of young people excluded from productive economic participation.
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