Over 200 thousand Gambians, representing about 35.2% of the population are unemployed, according to the 2018 National Survey on the Labour Force released Tuesday.
The survey was jointly conducted by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment.
According to the survey, 129,792 unemployed Gambians are females (57.1%), while 104,933 are males (42.9%). It also revealed that there are more unemployed living in the rural areas compared to the urban.
It also found that males with diploma have a higher proportion of unemployed persons compared to females, while for those with early childhood education, females have higher proportion of unemployed persons compared to males.
The report also showed that the number of employed persons is 431,168 of which 275,939 are males and 155,229 females.
Youth employment and unemployment rates have also showed that there are 377,326 youths who are actively participating in the labour force, of which 54.4 percent are males and 45.6 percent females.
The newly-appointed Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, Lamin Jobe, expressed concern about the high unemployment rate in the country and told The Chronicle that the government is taking proactive measures to bring the rate down.
He said the 2018 National Survey on the Labour Force will be a good guide to policy makers and will help them make informed choices on how to curb the unemployment rate.
Funded by UNDP, the National Survey on the Labour Force aimed to provide a benchmark data on some characteristics of the labour market after the first comprehensive labour force survey in 2012.
