3 Jan 2011
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All about Zambia and Unemployment, New Plans to Tackle Unemployment, the Informal Sector and Employment and Salaries, and more on Mywage Zambia.
By Meluse Kapatamoyo
Zambia has been advised to prioritise formal employment creation by implementing job-centered fiscal measures to reduce the risk of long-term unemployment and a bigger informal sector.
"Long-term unemployment and increased informal work are difficult to reverse. The government should strongly encourage investments that guarantee employment growth especially for Zambians," said Miniva Chibuye, Coordinator of the Social Conditions Programme at the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), a Catholic non-governmental organisation.
She said while the government had a critical role in creating the conditions for investments, the ultimate increase in formal employment was only going to come from sectors which were labour intensive such as manufacturing, agriculture and tourism.
"Creating employment opportunities will enable people to meet their basic needs through increased income. Therefore apart from creating formal employment, the country has the challenge of responding to the quality of employment with decent pay," noted Chibuye.
Informal employment figures very high
According to the 2008 draft Labour Force Survey, though formal employment grew from 416, 324 employees in 2005 to 522, 761 in 2008, its proportion of total employment remained low at only 10 percent of total employment.
Chibuye explained: "The share of informal employment is very high. This means that the majority of people in employment do not contribute to income taxes and are not protected by regulations at the workplace and basic social protection schemes such as retirement packages or gratuity."
Most Zambians considered to be in employment had insecure incomes and in some instances were unpaid family workers.
Basic Needs Basket
The situation was exacerbated by the high cost of living in many urban towns as evidenced by the JCTR’s Basic Needs Basket (BNB), which measures the cost of a bundle of basic food items and essential non-food items for an average family of six in a specific town. The BNB for November stands at K900, 550 from October’s K895, 000.
JCTR conducts cost of living surveys in 11 towns namely; Lusaka, Kitwe, Ndola, Luanshya, Livingstone, Monze, Solwezi, Mongu, Kasama, Kabwe and Chipata.
During the economic crisis, Zambia was one of the countries heavily affected by job losses and a slowdown in employment creation.
Quality of Employment
A recent "World of Work" International Labour Organisation (ILO) report suggested that it may take longer for advanced countries to return to pre-crisis levels while developing countries and emerging economies may recover more quickly from the crisis.
But despite this positive outlook on developing countries, "they face the challenge of absolving new entrants into the labour market and the labour surpluses from the pre-crisis period," stated the report.
"The quality of employment is just as important as creation of employment itself," said ILO director, Juan Somavia.
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