THE majority of Zimbabwe’s economically inactive and unemployed people among the working-age population of 9 046 415 are women, who constitute 59,6%, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) has revealed.
The 2022 population and Housing Census preliminary results on the labour force released by ZimStat yesterday says: “The national unemployment rate stood at 14,8%.
Across all provinces, unemployment was higher for females than males. In Matabeleland North, 31,6% of females and 17,9% of males were unemployed.
“At the national level, the youth unemployment rate was 23,4%. Harare and Mashonaland Central provinces had youth unemployment rates of 19,9% and 20,3%, respectively.
“Within provinces, female youths had higher unemployment rates than male youths. In Matabeleland North, 41,7% of the females were unemployed as compared to 25,6% of the males.”
Harare accounted for the highest number of employed persons (26,4%), followed by Mashonaland West with 12,8% of the 9 046 415 working population.
Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions former vice-president John Mangezi, however, said the figures were misleading, adding that there is high unemployment in the country.
“I don’t know where they got all those employed people from because the industry isn’t functionally working,” Mangezi said.
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Labour expert and former Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Peter Mutasa said: “This gives an impression that Zimbabwe is doing better than most countries within the region and continent.
“This is not helpful because the Zimbabwean economy is in bad shape. This leads to wrong policy conclusions and proposals.”
