JOBLESSNESS A TICKING TIME B0MB
… Population growth not matching economic prosperity
25th April, 2024
The population of Zambia has been growing rapidly since 1964, from about 3.6 million people to approximately 20 million in 2023. Unfortunately population growth has not matched jobs on the ground.
An estimated 5 million plus Zambians of working age are currently not employed. Those working, about 901,321 are in formal employment while 2,053,811 are in the informal sector.
It’s commendable that the UPND government have made some historical teacher and health personnel recruitments. Nonetheless, It is extremely erroneous to think that unemployment has been fixed.
It is also impossible for Government in any dispensation to employ 5 million people directly in Government. At the most Zambia needs about 100,000 new jobs every year to make a sensible dent on unemployment levels.
The best solutions to handle the high levels of unemployment remains within Zambia and it’s people;
1. Through the local private business sector. UPND Government must INITIATE LOCAL PRIVATE BUSINESS SECTOR REFORMS FOR MASS JOB CREATION never seen before since independence.
“Only a robust expanded local private sector has the capacity to to absorb the majority of our unemployed people.”
2. Through a Government aided policy to directly invest in Zambians through HIGH QUALITY START UPS across all the sectors of the economy, this is beyond the usual empowerment.
Matching the level of natural resources our country is endowed with it is very possible to bring down our Country’s unemployment levels to less than 1 percent of the working population in 10 to 15 years.
Silavwe Jackson
President
GPZ
Mr Silavwe there is some sense in what you are saying but the problem I have with your narrative is that it is mere rhetoric and it ends there. We like to talk and register Political Parties fighting to form Government as a key to access and loot the National Treasury. Think of it this way, currently Zambia has about 30 Political Parties, the most talkative ones contributing nothing to the GDP, except just daily polluting the air with their bad breath of toxic Talk on social media, radio stations and print media. Imagine if these 30 Political Parties were 30 registered Private Companies, how many Zambians (including young people) these companies would be employing and the goods and services that they would be producing? How many Political Parties do countries like USA, UK, Japan, Germany have in their countries and their Population compared to us? The other problem with Zambian private companies is their main target are Government Contracts by aligning themselves to the Party in Government and once this Party is voted out, these companies struggle to survive. Most Zambian companies thrive in shady provision of Services (General Dealers and Trading) instead of producing authentic Zambian Goods.