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The Sustainable Development Goals target decent work for all, including youth, by 2030. In sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), however, a “youth employment crisis” is now central to public and policy discourse. Consequently, the idea of “investing in youth” grows in importance, leading to a proliferation of interventions targeted to and specific to youth.

This article interrogates the framing of the problem as a “youth employment” crisis.

The article brings together evidence from a range of sources and disciplines, indicates where the evidence supports the current policy orthodoxy and where it does not, and maps out an alternative framing. Five pillars of the dominant narrative about youth employment are identified: demography, violence and civil unrest, training and skills, rural economy and urban economy. Three critical dimensions of Africa’s broader employment crisis are …