Zimbabwe’s official national unemployment rate during the first quarter of 2023 stood at 19 percent while the expanded unemployment rate for the nation was 46.7 percent.
By Staff Reporter
The expanded unemployment rate is defined as a person between the ages of 15 and 64 who is without a job, willing and able to work but is not actively searching for a job.
Presenting the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (Zimstat) 2023 First Quarter Quarterly Labour Force Survey Results, Director General Mr Taguma Mahonde said there was an increase in the number of employed people in the period under review.
“Employed persons increased by 2.73 percent from 3,122,352 persons in fourth quarter 2022 to 3,207,535 persons in first quarter 2023,” he said.
The latest unemployment rate according to the statistical agency, the official unemployment rate for the first quarter of the year stood at 19 percent with the expanded unemployment rate being 46.7 percent.
The official unemployment rate for the youths aged 15 to 24 stands at 34.4 percent while the expanded unemployment rate figures are 65.3 percent. For the 15 to 34 years age group, the official unemployment rate is 26.1 percent whereas the expanded unemployment rate is 55.6 percent.
During the period under review the labour force had 3,975,746 of persons aged 15 and above whereas the working age population had 9,054,007 people.
There were 31 197 migrants in the country by March of this year. With the majority of Zimbabweans migrating to South Africa for greener pastures, there are some South Africans who think Zimbabwe provides safe employment. It was noted that 5.6 percent of these migrants were South Africans.
More than half of the migrants recorded in Zimbabwe during the period under review were Mozambican nationals.
Those from Zambia accounted for 21.8 percent with Malawians being 14.8 percent with countries accounting for 6.8 percent.
Disaggregated by sex, there were 21 413 males and 9 784 females during the period under review.
Of the total number of people in the workforce, 1.6 percent were employed in the human health and social services with those who lost their jobs within the past three months being 2.3 percent.
Of those with masters’ and doctorate degrees in the medical sector who are unemployed were 4.3 percent.
Out of the 9 million youths who are of working age, 51.9 percent of those aged 15 to 34 years do not have any education, employment or training with those aged between 15 and 24 being 51.6 percent.
Disaggregated by sex, there are more females than males in this category. In the 15 to 24 age group, the percentage for females is 57.6 compared to 45.3 for males. In the 15 to 34 years age group, 42.8 percent were males while females were 60.2 percent.
