Govt forecasts slow growth in new jobs

Ministry of Labour has forecast slow growth of about 0.6 percent in the creation of new jobs between this year and 2024, ending steady annual increases recorded in the past three years

The estimates are contained in the report on employment statistics published late last year, which documented the number of jobs created and lost in the first half of the 2022/2023 fiscal year.

But the Minister of Labour Vera Kamtukule says the jobs created could be more than what is projected.

The report published on the government website www.malawi.gov.mw, forecasts that 217 560 jobs will be created by the end of this fiscal year in March. This is a 35 percent jump from the 161 717 created in 2021.

From 2020, which produced 77 921 jobs, to 2021, the nation recorded a 107 percent increase.

In the next financial year, the report predicts that 218 949 employment opportunities will be opened up, which will be a 0.6 percent growth compared to this year.

In 2024, a total of 220 340  jobs will be created, the report forecasts. This represents a 0.6 percent increase from the year 2023.

The report says the first half of the 2022/23 financial year had 112 000 jobs created, 12 763 of which were in the formal economy.

The report did not explain reasons behind the expected slow growth in new jobs in the coming two years.

However, in an interview the Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi executive director George Khaki attributed the low employment opportunities to economic factors.

“Challenges in inflation, unreliable power supply, lack of forex are severely impacting on industry productivity and demand for goods and services. Industry is likely to shed off more jobs if these bottlenecks prevail.

“Moving forward, the government needs immediate and long-term plans to address these challenges in order to create a conducive environment for industries to strive,” he said.

The study, which sampled 451 workplaces, established that “administrative and support activities; education; and agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors had the highest contribution in job creation.”

Even though economists have been advocating for strengthening of the manufacturing industry to increase exports and create more jobs, the report suggests there is no significant progress.

“No significant amounts of jobs were reported to have been created by the manufacturing sector,” the report reads.

In an interview on Friday,  Kamtukule said jobs that are being created could be more than what the study found out.

She attributed her line of thought to lack of data as some workplaces were not forthcoming to provide the researchers with data.

The minister, however, said the government was still bothered with the unemployment challenges while hoping that the strategies to boost the manufacturing sector would materialise.

 “The Malawi 2063 is already talking about commerciliasing our agriculture and urbanising our country and that’s where we need to go.

“To achieve this, we are focusing on value addition to our produce such as tomatoes which go bad within a week,” she said.

As part of its campaign tool, the Tonse Alliance government promised to create one million jobs during their tenure.