A review of the impact of HIV/AIDS on education, the workforce and workplace: The African experience

Abstract

The impact of HIV/AIDS cuts across all sectors of economic activities and social life. For example, it not only reduces the stock of human capital but also the capacity to maintain the required turnover of many sought after skills and training like engineers, doctors, teachers, artisans and others. In the educational sphere, it leads to among other things a decrease in potential clientele for education, resources and even donor support. On the workforce, its impact increases expenditure on the one hand and decreases productivity on the other. In fact, economists posit that even when unemployment rates are high, retirement and death of a large number of skilled and unskilled workers will cause an increase in wages. © Medwell Journals, 2011.