Labour Force Survey data shows unemployment rate of 34.5%

The Namibia Labour Force Survey 2016 Report conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) shows that 34.5% of youth aged 15-34 years are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET)

The Statistician-General, Alex Shimuafeni, said that the collected 2016 data shows an increase of 10.4 % from the rate of 24.1 % recorded in the 2014 Labour Force Survey.

“The NEET concept was introduced alongside the unemployment rate in consideration of the fact that where youth do not reflect as employed or part of the labour force due to them being in education or training, this is positive rather than negative,” he said.

Shimuafeni said that this fact cannot be omitted and needs to be considered, in particular, in respect of the age group 15-24 years. The NEET rate, Shimuafeni said is therefore intended to reflect those youth who are not part of the labour force for reasons other than education and training.

The NEET results by age group and sex shows the rate was particularly higher at the age group of 20-24, the average age where the rate was recorded to be 46.9 %, and was very low among those in the age group of 15 to 19 years having recorded a 19.1 % NEET rate.

The result further showed that NEET was higher for female youth as opposed to male youth across all 14 regions. The rate was also found to be higher for female youth at 39.3 % in relation to their male counterparts at 29.6 %.

At the regional level results from the data collected show the Kunene region had recorded the highest rate of 58.6 % NEET, while regions such as Erongo recorded the lowest at 25.% NEET.

The resulting outcome of NEET with detail to education levels show that the Highest level of education completed for both sexes was Junior secondary for 124,206.

In general, being not in education and not in employment or training affects the general population of young people, regardless of their level of educational. Yet, analysing the educational level of NEET, Shimuafeni said the field collected data reveals that those with no education or lower educational levels are highly represented in the NEET group.

The analysis further showed that NEET is very low among youths with master’s and PHD’s only accounting for about 1.3 % compared to the youth with secondary or lower level of education whose average rate was 35%.

The NSA has been conducting annual Labour Force Surveys since 2012 as a cabinet directive to monitor the market related labour force indicators. The 2016 survey is the first Labour Force Survey where the data was collected using Computer Assisted Personal Interview method. The previous LFS used Pen-and-Paper Interviewing as a mode of data collection.