The expanded unemployment rate reached 20.3% in the 3rd quarter of 2024, compared to 19.5% for the same period in 2023, reports Les Échos. The evolution of the main labor market indicators year-on-year reveals a decline in activity and employment rates, combined with a slight increase in unemployment, both in the broad sense and in the strict sense of the International Labor Office ( BIT).
According to the results of the National Employment Survey in Senegal (ENES), conducted by the ANSD in the 3rd quarter of 2024 and relayed by Les Échos, 58.3% of people of working age (15 years or over) have participated in the labor market. This level of activity is slightly higher in rural areas (58.8%) than in urban areas (58.0%). Men are more active than women, with respective rates of 68.7% and 47.7%. Year-on-year, the level of participation fell by 3.1 percentage points compared to the same period in 2023.
The employment rate, which measures the share of people in employment among those of working age, stood at 42.8% during the quarter under review, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points compared to the 3rd. quarter 2023 (44.4%). According to Les Échos, this level of employment is higher in urban areas (45.7%) than in rural areas (38.3%). In addition, it remains significantly higher among men (56.4%) than among women (28.8%). Concerning salaried employment, its share in total employment stood at 38.9%. during the 3rd quarter of 2024, according to Les Échos. This proportion increased by 1.6 percentage points compared to the same period in 2023 (37.3%).
Access to paid employment is significantly higher in urban areas (48.9%) than in rural areas (20.6%). Furthermore, the share of salaried employment differs according to gender: 43.6% for men versus 29.5% for women. Family helpers, who represented 8.2% of the workforce in the 3rd quarter of 2023, saw their share decrease to 6.3% in 2024. This proportion is higher in rural areas (12.9%) than in urban areas (1.9%).
The expanded unemployment rate stood at 20.3% in the 3rd quarter of 2024, compared to 19.5% for the same period in 2023, an increase of 0.8 percentage point, indicates Les Échos.
In the strict sense of the ILO, the unemployment rate stood at 5.3% for this period. In rural areas, the broad unemployment rate is higher (21.9%) than in urban areas (19.2%). Furthermore, women are more affected by unemployment (32.9%) than men (11.8%).
-Les Échos specifies that, according to the ILO, the unemployed include people without work, available for work within two weeks, and having actively sought employment in the four weeks preceding data collection. However, this definition is considered restrictive for Senegal, where the labor market is poorly structured for active job search.
Young people aged 15 to 24 who are neither in employment, education nor training (NEET) represented 34.1% of this age group in the 3rd quarter of 2024, according to Les Échos. This rate is higher in rural areas (42.7%) than in urban areas (28.2%).
Depending on gender, a large disparity is observed: 43.7% of women are NEETs, compared to 24.8% of men. Les Échos recalls that, since the 2nd quarter of 2024, the sampling of the survey has been revised to guarantee annual representativeness at the departmental level, whereas it was previously regional.
For this 3rd quarter, 3,647 households were initially drawn for the sample, and 3,614 were actually surveyed, which corresponds to a coverage rate of 99.1%, concludes Les Échos.
