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Ethiopia Unemployment
Generally, it is difficult to measure unemployment in less
developed countries such as Ethiopia because of the lack of
reliable records and the existence of various informal types
of work. However, based on Ministry of Labor surveys and
numerous other analyses, a general assessment of
unemployment in Ethiopia can be made. According to the
Ministry of Labor, the unemployment rate increased 11.5
percent annually during the 1979-88 period; by l987/88 there
were 715,065 registered unemployed workers in thirty-six
major towns. Of those registered, l34,ll7 ultimately found
jobs, leaving the remaining 580,948 unemployed. The urban
labor force totaled 1.7 million in 1988/89. The Ministry of
Labor indicated that the government employed 523,000 of
these workers. The rest relied on private employment or
self-employment for their livelihood.
According to the government, rural unemployment was
virtually nonexistent. A l981/82 rural labor survey revealed
that 97.5 percent of the rural labor force worked, 2.4
percent did not work because of social reasons, and 0.l
percent had been unemployed during the previous twelve
months. However, it is important to note that unemployment,
as conventionally defined, records only part of the story;
it leaves out disguised unemployment and underemployment,
which were prevalent in both urban and rural areas. For
instance, the same rural labor force survey found that 50
percent of those working were unpaid family workers. What is
important about unemployment in Ethiopia is that with an
expansion of the labor force, the public sector--with an
already swollen payroll and acute budgetary problems--was
unlikely to absorb more than a tiny fraction of those
entering the labor market.
Data as of 1991
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