Unemployment jumps to 22%, average wages drop to P4,800

The Labour Force survey for the fourth quarter of 2019 released recently is only the second quarterly labour report Statistics Botswana has produced, following on from the third quarter edition released in January.

The data indicates a troubling jobs scenario prior to the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which is expected to have significantly worsened all the numbers. According to the latest survey, the number of unemployed people in the country rose by nearly 16,800 between September and December last year, while the number of the formally employed fell by about 2,600 people.