According to the survey results, among the 6,709,000 persons 16 years old and over living in private households, about 3,626,000 persons representing 54 percent were in the labour force, either employed (3,019,000) or unemployed (607,000).
The remainder 3,084,000 persons were outside the labour force including some 1,766,000 persons engaged wholly or mostly in subsistence foodstuff production, not classified as employment according to the new international standards on statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization.
The unemployment rate stood at 16.7 percent, indicating that roughly for six persons in the labour force there was one person unemployed. The unemployment rate was higher among women (17.5 percent) than among men (16.1 percent) and higher among young people (21.0) than among adults (13.3%).
It was also higher in the urban areas (18.1 percent) than in the rural areas (16.2 percent). This situation is different from the one in August 2016, where the unemployment rate was higher in rural areas (19.8 percent) than in urban areas (16.4 percent).
This confirms the fact that during the low season of agriculture a substantial number of people who are normally involved in subsistence agriculture in rural areas are looking for an alternative job as they are waiting for the next agricultural season.
The median duration of seeking employment was only 4.2 months but about 32 percent of the unemployed were seeking employment for 12 months or more (long-term unemployment).