Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare says there's a  need for government to address rigid recruitment requirements that often demand years of experience from newly qualified graduates.

Thus, he informed the National Assembly that the government is considering more flexible recruitment criteria to help young graduates enter the public service.

Dr. Ngurare was responding to Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda, who questioned him on introducing a first-time applicant policy in the public service to ensure vacancies create employment opportunities for unemployed graduates, rather than being filled by people already employed within the system.

"Prime Minister, of course we accept that the problem with unemployment in our country could be explained by the structure of the economy that is still white-owned, and we are afraid of calling it what it is. "There have been young people who have asked, I think even in this parliament, who have asked that the unemployment situation be declared as an emergency," stressed Amupanda. 

The Prime Minister said the Public Service Commission (PSC) is exploring options to recruit first-time job seekers into vacant positions, including at regional and local offices.

"We must be deliberate in addressing issues of unemployment, especially youth unemployment. And what the conference and the reasons we held this conference are to say is, oftentimes, we can attend a graduation on Saturday, and we applaud these young people that are passing through the aisle. And on Monday, the same people come to look for work or for a job, and we ask for nine years' experience of the very same person that we witnessed. The very person we witnessed graduated. So what we are then saying in respect of unemployment and how we can, from the uptake of public service, is that we must now look at some of these rigid criteria that have been established by time immemorial and be realistic that if an honourable Hengari possesses a particular skill, we should look at that skill and give an opportunity for that young person to find and land themselves in a position the same way we all started."