Over 3m gainfully employed—Zimstats
ZIMBABWE has released its first quarterly Labour Force Survey findings, which indicate that over three million people were employed in various sectors of the economy during the third quarter ended September 30, 2021.
In the past, the country conducted its labour force surveys after every five years before shifting to quarterly surveys, which now allow Zimbabwe to participate in the Sadc Labour Market Observatory.
The country’s inaugural labour force survey findings were presented virtually by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) yesterday.
In his outline, Zimstat acting manager for the labour market statistics department, Mr Tidings Matangira said the survey provides necessary labour market indicators to monitor the implementation of Zimbabwe’s macro-economic policies such as the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1) and other related strategies.
The survey also provides information on key labour market indicators for Zimbabwe that are comparable with Sadc and other African countries in line with the international standards.
Mr Matangira said the survey, which also provides indicators that allow monitoring and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the agenda 2063, had a national response rate of above 90 percent.
“Our employment, we defined it as persons who did some work during the reference period of seven days for pay, profit or family gain,” he explained.
“By this, we are saying we now no longer consider those people who do work for own consumption or provide services for own consumption, they are no longer part of our employment.
“So, using this definition, our survey estimated total employed persons in the country at around 3,3 million where we had our employed males at around 1,9 million and employed females at around 1,4 million,” said Mr Matangira.
In terms of the survey methodology, the survey had a two-stage sample design that was used for sample selection for the survey.
The first stage was the selection of enumeration areas using the probability proportional size criteria.
“Here we are saying areas with more population, we get more enumeration areas, so it would depend on the population size of a certain area that will then determine how many enumeration areas are to be selected for that area,” said Mr Matangira.
“Our second stage of sampling was then the selection of households in the selected enumeration areas using random systematic sampling technique. So, a total of 500 enumeration areas and 12 500 households were selected for the survey.”
He said Zimstat also computed the employment population ratio, which by definition is the proportion of the employed to the working age population.
In the quarter under review, the agency found out that Harare had the highest employment population ratio of around 52, 4 percent followed by Bulawayo at 41 percent.
The least employment population ratio was in Matabeleland North at 26,3 percent.
The total employment population ratio was around 37,3 percent and it was more for males at around 46,5 percent than for females at 29,2 percent.
“This indicator is important in that it shows the absorption rate of the labour market or the rate at which the economy creating employment.
“A higher rate might not necessarily mean that a country is performing well; it needs to be interrogated further. In some cases, it could be a sign of limited education options for our youngsters to the extent that they will join the labour market at very young ages, so the rate needs to be interrogated to see if at all, it’s all positive in terms of the rate which we have obtained,” he said.
The latest quarterly labour survey also indicated that Zimbabwe’s working age population was 15 years and above and estimated the number of persons in the working age population was at 8,9 million.
During the quarter under review, the labour force was for 15 years and above and it comprised of the persons in employment and unemployed job seekers. In terms of labour force participation by province, again Harare had the highest rate of around 62,7 percent followed by Bulawayo at around 57,3 percent while Matabeleland North had the least at around 33,3 percent.
Earlier in her remarks, the International Labour Organisation statistician based in Pretoria, South Africa Ms Maria Payet said: “The decision to move from five yearly to quarterly is a step, which will facilitate the country’s participation in the Sadc Labour Market Observatory (LMO).
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The conceptual framework for the Sadc LMO was adopted at this year’s Sadc Employment and Labour Sector Ministers and Social Partners meeting on 30th April,” she said. — The Chronicle
