There are more and more people to work and fewer jobs available. The informal employment rate stands at 80.5% and inactivity is around 11%
Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) for the fourth quarter of 2023 show that only 2.2 million Angolans have formal employment, while 9.4 million have informal employment. The unemployment rate stood at 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023, registering a growth of 2.3% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The inactivity rate, which refers to people who for some reason cannot work, stood at 11% in the fourth quarter of 2023, having grown by 0.8 percentage points (pp), compared to the same quarter of 2023. 2022, when it was situated at 10.2%. INE data shows that in 2022 there were 1.8 million inactive people, now there are more than 2.1 million inactive people.
Looking at employment, it can be seen that it fell by around 3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to the previous year. In 2022, 63.1% of active people had a job, while in 2023 this number fell to 60.7%. There are several reasons, but paying attention to the data, you can see, for example, that the number of active people has grown by more than 554 thousand people.
If in the fourth quarter of 2022 there were 16.6 million active employees, in the fourth quarter of 2023 there were 17.1 million active employees, which represents an increase that in itself leads to a movement in the employability situation. From these data it is also evident the problem of the increase in population, which is negatively proportional to the increase in job offers, which shows that the population grows faster than jobs can be created. Added to this concern is the fact that there is a lot of informal employment. There are also many people who, although they work, do not have a fixed or stable income, and are unable to live a life with the standards of dignity of those who have a job.
BY: Ladislau Francisco