According to a study recently published by the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (Ansd), Senegal recorded an expanded unemployment rate of 20.3% in the third quarter of 2024. This survey, made public on Tuesday January 7, 2025 , reveals a slight increase compared to the same period in 2023, when the rate was 19.5%. The data specifies that in the strict sense of the International Labor Office (ILO), unemployment stands at 5.3% for the quarter in question.
During the year 2024, the unemployment rate in Senegal experienced several fluctuations, reaching 23.20% in the first quarter then decreasing to 21.60% in the second quarter. Historically, the average unemployment rate stands at 18.01% between 1994 and 2024, peaking at 26.10% in the second quarter of 2020 and a record high of 5.60% in the fourth quarter of 2002, as reported recall our colleagues from Sud Quotidien.
Participation in the labor market, in the third quarter of 2024, stood at 58.3% for people aged 15 and over. This percentage marks a decline of 3.1 points compared to 2023. We note a higher participation rate in rural areas (58.8%) compared to urban areas (58.0%). In terms of gender, this participation is more pronounced among men (68.7%) than among women (47.7%), we read in the report relayed by the Sud Quotidien site.
The employment rate, calculated among people of working age, fell to 42.8%, decreasing by 1.6 points compared to the third quarter of 2023, when it reached 44.4%. The Ansd notes that employment is more prevalent in urban areas, with a rate of 45.7%, compared to 38.3% in rural areas. The survey ends by highlighting that men are significantly more represented on the job market with a rate of 56.4%, while that of women is only 28.8%.
Senegal
