Africa's Got Work to Do: Employment Prospects in the New Century

By Louise Fox, Cleary Haines, Jorge Huerta Munoz, Alun H. Thomas

October 1, 2013

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Format: Chicago

Louise Fox, Cleary Haines, Jorge Huerta Munoz, and Alun H. Thomas Africa's Got Work to Do: Employment Prospects in the New Century, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2013) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Estimates of the current and future structure of employment in sub-Saharan Africa (2005–20) are obtained based on household survey estimates for 28 countries and an elasticity-type model that relates employment to economic growth and demographic outcomes. Agriculture still employs the majority of the labor force although workers are shifting slowly out of the sector. Sub-Saharan Africa’s projected rapid labor force growth, combined with a low baseline level of private sector wage employment, means that even if sub-Saharan Africa realizes another decade of strong growth, the share of labor force employed in private firms is not expected to rise substantially. Governments need to undertake measures to attract private enterprises that provide wage employment, but they also need to focus on improving productivity in the traditional and informal sectors as these will continue to absorb the majority of the labor force.

Subject: Agricultural sector, Economic sectors, Employment, Income, Labor, Labor force, National accounts, Personal income, Wages

Keywords: Africa, Agricultural sector, Agriculture, Asia and Pacific, Country strategy, Creation result, East Asia, Employment, Employment elasticity, Employment structure, Employment transformation, Household enterprise employment, Household enterprises, Income, Industry, Labor force, Public employment, Services, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Wage employment, Wages, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

39
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2013/201
Stock No:

WPIEA2013201
ISBN:

9781484389195
ISSN:

1018-5941

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