Declining trend in Unemployment rate from February 2017 to February 2019(Q1)
The Rwanda Labour Force Survey (LFS) started in 2016 with an annual sample spread into two rounds to provide bi-annual estimates of main labour market indicators at National level. From February 2019, the sample was spread into four rounds to provide estimates of labour market indicators at national level on quarterly basis objective to provide data on the structure and trends of labour force, employment and unemployment as well as other related labour market statistics for the implementation and evaluation of economic and social policies related to employment creation, income generation, skills development, and related decent work policies.
The LFS February 2019 (Q1) compared with past results in other rounds conducted in February shows that, Employment remained essentially unchanged relative to the size of the working age population, Unemployment rate steadily decreased by about 1 percentage point per year and Labour force participation rate slightly decreased.
These results provide evidence of the positive performance of the labour market of Rwanda during the last three years as well as the strength of the labour force survey as measurement instrument.
The unemployment has shown a declining trend in urban and rural areas, among youth and adults alike. The declining unemployment rate is also confirmed with other indicators of labour underutilization. The trends of Combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment (LU2), the combined rate of potential labour force and unemployment (LU3) were generally stable (about 40 Percent) and the trends of Composite measure of labour underutilization, combining time-related underemployment, unemployment and potential labour (LU4) remained more or less stable (about 57 percent) . The unemployment rate dropped by about 2.2 percentage points from February 2017 to February 2019 (Q1), while the corresponding drop was 1.1 percentage point for LU2, 1.5 percentage point for LU3 and 1.6 percentage point for LU4..
By MUKUNDABANTU Jean Marc
Ag TL/Labour statistics