Africa-Press – Mozambique. The estimated unemployment rate for Mozambique decreased from 20.7% in 2014/2015 to 17.5% in 2019/20, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), given the limitations in the measurement of the country’s prevalent informal and subsistence activities.
The measurement takes into account employees who have had paid work for “at least one hour in the seven days prior to” the 2019/2020 Household Budget Survey, currently consulted by Lusa.
“The unemployment rate shows a decreasing behaviour”, with no “significant difference” between men and women, but with geographic contrasts. In urban areas it stands at 28.9% against 11.4% in rural areas, reads the final report.
“Maputo Province and Maputo City have the highest unemployment rates in the country, with 31.6% and 37.1%, respectively,” while, at the other extreme, the lowest unemployment rate “is registered in the province of Zambézia, in the order of 10.7%”.
Measuring unemployment “has been very difficult in the socioeconomic conditions of developing countries”, the report reads, taking into account the “greater intensity of economic activities of an informal nature and, also, the fact that most people, even those who do not have a job, have to practice some activity for their livelihood”.
The study considered as unemployed all persons aged 15 years or older without an occupation, casual workers, self-employed workers without employees and without regular work, and family workers without remuneration.
