Windhoek — Namibia’s unemployment rate rose to 36.9% in 2023 from 33.4% in 2018, the statistics office said on Wednesday.
The country of about three million people has one of the highest official unemployment levels in the world, having overtaken neighbouring South Africa whose unemployment rate fell to 32.1% in the third quarter of 2024 after the formation of a coalition government.
Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni said that 320,442 individuals were employed in Namibia in 2023, of the total 867,247 people in the labour force.
Namibia’s unemployment rate now excludes discouraged workers, making the actual number of people without jobs higher.
The broader unemployment rate stands at 54.8%, as reported in the 2023 Labour Force report, said Tannan Groenewald, head of data and analytics at Cirrus Capital.
Namibia’s President-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah in December pledged “radical shifts” to fix the country’s high levels of poverty and unemployment.
*Nyasha Nyaungwa; editing: Tannur Anders & Peter Graff – Reuters
