It’s official: 51,2% of workforce jobless in Namibia

It’s official: 51,2% of workforce jobless

By: JO-MARÉ DUDDY

GOVERNMENT has finally, after keeping the figures under wrap for about a year, admitted that unemployment in Namibia is “unacceptably high” at 51,2 per cent.

Releasing the Namibia Labour Force Survey (NLFS) 2008 yesterday, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko said “there should be no doubt about the accuracy of the 51,2 per cent of unemployment in Namibia”.
Out of the 1,1 million Namibians 15 years and older in 2008, only 331 444 or about 30 per cent worked.
A total of 347 237 were unemployed, meaning they couldn't find work or they stopped looking for jobs.
According to the latest survey 428 173 people were “economically inactive” two years ago.
They included the retired, disabled or sick, homemakers and students.
Officially 58,4 per cent of Namibia's female labour force, and 43,5 per cent of the male work force, was jobless.
In rural Namibia, 46,6 per cent of the workforce was unemployed – 52,8 per cent of women and 41 per cent of men.
The picture looked slightly better in urban areas with total unemployment of 30,6 per cent.
Of this, 35,7 per cent of the female urban workforce was stuck without work, while 25,8 per cent of males were jobless.
Nearly 60 per cent of the country's workforce between 15 and 34 years was unemployed – 66,8 per cent of women in this category had no work, while 41,6 per cent of men were jobless.
Omusati had the highest unemployment rate, at 78,6 per cent, in the country.
Officially 81,2 per cent of women and 75,2 per cent of men in the region were without work. Nearly 82 per cent of the youth, aged 15 to 34, was jobless.
Ohangwena had an unemployment rate of 76,4 per cent. Nearly 84 per cent of the region's youth was unemployed.
Unemployment in the other regions was Kavango (70 per cent; youth 76,9 per cent), Oshikoto (68,6 per cent; youth 71,9 per cent), Caprivi (65,6 per cent; youth 75,7 per cent), Kunene (50,4 per cent; youth 55,2 per cent), Oshana (48,8 per cent; youth 56,2 per cent), Omaheke (48,2 per cent; youth 60,3 per cent), Otjozondjupa (43,8 per cent; youth 50,5 per cent), Hardap (38,6 per cent; 49,9 per cent), Khomas (33,5 per cent; youth 43,6 per cent), Erongo (32,6 per cent; youth 42,7 per cent) and Karas (36,4 per cent; youth 49,1 per cent).
The official release came as the National Planning Commission (NPC) prepares to host the country's first employment creation summit on Thursday.
Ngatjizeko could give no indication of official targets to combat unemployment except to say that it is not just Government's problem.
“The Government, employers, unions and everybody in Namibia should use this figure and find strategies to reverse this current unemployment situation in the country. The responsibility of employment creation lies with every able person residing in Namibia,” the Minister said.
Ngatjizeko said the “drastic fall” in employment figures was mainly due to the agricultural sector.
“A number of seasonal and weather related factors, coupled with falling international market prices for agricultural produce, and other primary commodities, might have contributed to these high figures in [the] agricultural sector,” he said.
Another culprit was the closure of a number of mines and manufacturing companies, he said. Ngatjizeko also blamed the 2008 global financial crisis, as well as global warming, for hurting subsistence activities and “eventually impacted on the reduction in informal employment in that sector”.
Asked why Government stalled with the release of the report, Ngatjizeko said the actual process took time, and then the results had to be verified.
The Namibian already revealed the contents of a leaked copy of the NLFS in February. It showed that Ngatjizeko signed the report last September.