By Own Correspondent
LATEST data by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) has revealed that a paltry 2,5 million citizens are employed out of a total working age population which is thrice the number of the employed.
The survey showed that 9,046,415 people, who constitute more than half of the population, were eligible for employment, but only 2,501,758 were in employment.
Harare province has the highest number of employed people at 12,7 percent while Matebeleland North province has the least number of eligible employed people at 3, 8 percent.
“The census collected information on the main job only. If a person had more than one job, the main job was the one for which the individual usually spent most of his/her working time (or was expected to do so under his/her contract).
“This section focuses on the characteristics of the employed persons in their main job. According to the 2022 PHC, there were 2,501,758 currently employed persons,” said the report.
The preliminary report, more youths in the country were unemployed despite a pledge by the 80-year-old Zanu PF leader to turn around the unemployment tide.
“At the national level, the unemployment rate for youth (15 – 34 years) stood at 18, 2 percent. In Matabeleland North, the rate stood at 26.6 percent.
“Within provinces, female youths (15 – 34 years) had higher unemployment rates than male youths. In Matabeleland North, 36.2 percent of the females were unemployed as compared to 20.4 percent of the males,” said Zimstats.
Unemployment continues to dog the Southern Africa nation on the back of the implementation of fragile economic policies which have not done much to attract meaningful investors who have capacity to create decent jobs.
Against the backdrop, incessant informalisation continues to dog the nation with data showing that Zimbabwe is among the five most informalised economies in the world.
Expectations are that the state of job creation is likely to be worsened further as the nation gears for elections next year.
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