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Uganda LABOR FORCE
In the late 1980s, most Ugandans worked outside the
monetary
economy, in part because the number of jobs in industry
was
dwindling and the value of Ugandan salaries was declining.
Throughout the decade, official wages failed to keep up
with the
rising cost of living, and most wage earners were able to
survive
only because they had access to land and raised food
crops. By
the mid-1980s, typical average wages at the official
exchange
rate were only US$10 a month for factory workers, US$20 a
month
for lower-level civil servants, and US$40 a month for
university
lecturers. In the late 1980s, the converted value of these
wages
declined even further as the value of the shilling
dropped. In
addition, the decline in industrial production in the
1970s and
1980s had reduced the proportion of high-paying jobs. As a
result, more industrial workers pursued black market
activities
in order to support themselves.
Upon seizing power in 1986, the Museveni government
tried to
improve the status of wage laborers. The 1987 RDP aimed to
enhance the country's self-sufficiency by increasing the
number
of skilled workers in industry. During the late 1980s, the
government initiated a number of programs to improve
working
conditions in industry and provide training for industrial
workers as well as government administrators. The
Occupational
Health and Hygiene Department implemented several projects
to
minimize occupational hazards in industry and to improve
workers'
health care. The Directorate of Industrial Training
coordinated
several vocational training programs, and the Rural
Entrepreneurial/Vocational Training Center was established
at
Bowa. In addition, the government renovated the Institute
of
Public Administration, which provided training for
government
employees, and in 1988 it undertook a Public Service
Improvement
Project to train local administrators. Makerere University
also
established several training programs in surveying skills,
agriculture, environmental studies, pharmacy, and computer
science.
A lack of reliable labor statistics hampered the
Museveni
government's planning efforts in relation to the labor
force. To
collect reliable data, the government implemented a labor
survey
in October 1986. The survey concentrated on the formal
sector of
the economy, assessing available skills, training needs,
vacancies in the labor market, and training facilities. In
September 1988, the International Labour Office (ILO)
surveyed
the informal economic sector to assess the potential for
growth
in this sector.
By the late 1980s, the government, which had become the
single major employer in the country, experienced
significant
problems as a result of almost two decades of economic
decline
and lax accounting procedures. A major problem was the
lack of an
accurate count of public wage earners, and to meet this
urgent
need, the government conducted a census of civil servants
in
1987. It discovered 239,528 government employees and a
wage bill
for the month of May 1987 of USh53.2 million. Teaching and
related activities employed 42 percent of all government
workers;
about 10 percent of civil servants worked in
health-related
fields. The largest concentration of government workers
was in
Kampala, although they represented a surprisingly low 15
percent
of all government employees. The remaining 85 percent
worked in
other towns and cities.
Low wage scales led to the second serious problem
confronting
the government--i.e., corruption and inefficiency in the
public
sector. Both in government departments and parastatals,
charges
of corruption were widespread and were often attributed to
low
earnings. The highest-paid civil servant, the chief
justice,
received only about USh7,000 a month in 1988 (roughly
US$117 at
1988 exchange rates). Gross monthly average pay was
USh3,127
(US$52) in government posts, but the lowest-paid civil
servants
received only USh1,175 (US$20) a month. Workers in
parastatal
organizations received a monthly wage averaging USh5,786
(US$96),
and in the private sector, roughly USh7,312 (US$122). Such
income
levels explained why a 1989-90 survey showed that more
than half
of all Ugandans lived below the poverty line, defined by
the
government as a household income of USh25,000 a month
(roughly
US$49 at official 1990 exchange rates).
Then in an attempt to streamline the civil service, the
government announced plans to eliminate 30 percent of the
nation's civil service jobs, leaving about 200,000 people
employed by the government. This plan was not implemented,
however. A labor survey in 1989 revealed that more than
244,000
people still worked for the national government, in
addition to
those in parastatal organizations.
Data as of December 1990
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