Report highlights strides in job creation
Malawi has made strides in addressing unemployment with trends showing that more people are able to earn an income, published World Bank data shows.
The data, modelled on International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates, show that since 2021 unemployment rate has been on the downward spiral, falling from 5.8 percent in 2021 to five percent in 2023.
According to ILO, employment is doing work that is paid for at least one hour in a week.
But the Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (Ecam) has argued that the quality of work remains an issue of concern.
In an interview yesterday, Ecam executive director George Khaki said there is need to create decent work that pays adequate wages and affords workers minimum standards of employment in accordance with national laws and international conventions.
He said: “The other question is, are these the type of jobs that the people want and do they match with their skills and qualifications?”
Khaki said some of the prominent sectors contributing to job creation in Malawi include electricity, tourism, construction and mining.
Malawi Congress of Trade Unions president Charles Kumchenga said government needs to do more despite those strides.
He said: “We feel Malawi is trying to narrow the gap in terms of creating job opportunities, but there are so many people unemployed. That’s why we are saying we need to do more.”
But labour activist Luther Mambala said the downward spiral in unemployment in Malawi over the period under review “is negligible and very minimal”.
“This entails that unemployment is still rampant,” he said.
The World Bank data comes at a time stakeholders have painted a gloomy outlook for the job market, citing the challenging macro- economic environment as not conducive for sustaining and creating jobs.
It also comes at a time Malawi remains one of the three countries out of 46 economies in Africa with the highest working poverty rate, the proportion of the employed population living in poverty despite being at 70.18 percent, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
This implies that their employment-related incomes are not sufficient to lift them and their families out of poverty and ensure decent living conditions.
Meanwhile, Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu said Malawi has made gainful strides, even though the levels are not where government would want to be.
He said: “The good thing is that we are addressing the problem and everyone can see. I hope we will together as Malawians start toning down on this obsession for negativity towards our country and begin to tell our beautiful stories before others talk about them for us.”
Ministry of Labour forecasted slow growth of about 0.6 percent in the creation of new jobs between last year and this year.
