The Namibia 2011 Population and Housing Census revealed unemployment in Namibia now stands at 37 percent as opposed to the 51 percent unemployment rate of the 2008 Namibia Labour Force Survey (NLFS).
The latest census results come as a great relief to many following the results of the 2008 NLFS, which were contested by politicians, economists and labour experts. Local economist Martin Mwinga and World Bank experts found discrepancies in the unemployment figures from the 2008 labour force survey, with notable flaws in the method of data collection.
Mwinga, raised eyebrows when he did a comparative study of the figures and came up with an unemployment rate of just above 28 percent. But, the Namibia 2011 Population and Housing Census now shows that of the 847 415 economically active Namibians over the age of 15, 534 912 or 63 percent are employed, while 37 percent which is 312 503 people are unemployed.
However, labour force participation remains lower in rural areas as compared to urban centres, a situation that perhaps explains the endless influx of people from rural to urban areas.
"The private sector provided jobs for the largest proportion of employees (39.8 percent) followed by subsistence communal farmers without paid employees (21 percent) and government (17 percent)," according to the census report.
The report further indicates that the Kavango Region has the highest unemployment rate of over 50 percent, while the Khomas and Erongo regions had the lowest unemployment rate of around 30 percent.
Only 1.3 percent of people who have attained tertiary education were unemployed at the time of the census, while 40 percent of the unemployed had secondary education. The remaining 58 percent of unemployed people were those with no formal education, and incomplete primary and secondary education.
Statistics also show that 27 percent of the unemployed population were actively looking for work. "The proportion of females looking for work was higher then males, and perhaps, surprisingly, the percentage of job seekers in urban areas was lower than in rural areas," stated the report released last week by President Hifikepunye Pohamba.
via New Era