A recent report from the Addis Ababa Labor and Social Affairs indicates that there are over 100,000 unemployed people living in Addis Ababa. This is in spite of the fact that many have graduated from colleges and universities or technical and vocational schools.
Sixty thousand of the unemployed are men while 43,148 women are jobless. These figures do not include people who migrate to Addis looking for work.
Among the ten sub-cities Ledeta has the highest number of unemployed at 31,673, Kolefe and Yeka come in second and third at 22,342 and 19,782 people respectively. Kirkos has the lowest number at 10,756.
The report says 43,148 people told the Bureau they got a job recently of whom 21,117 are women. When the registration occurred around 30,000 people were unaccounted for so it is not known if they obtained employment.
Recent research indicated that there is a mismatch of education and training so that many do not have the skills needed to meet the needs of the labor market. Other problems include an unparalleled population growth and availability of jobs, and the high level of migration from rural to urban areas which increase the number of unemployed people in Addis Ababa. Albeit to a lesser extent recently, recruitment culture has also its own share of the blame. Employers’ tendency of ignoring young graduates and their obsession with five plus years of work experience appears for many young graduates terrifyingly intimidating. According to World Bank’s Africa Development Indicators, 81.4% of youths and 43% of adults in Ethiopia worked in the informal sector of which 12.5% of the youth and 49.6% of the adults were self-employed.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) currently urban youth unemployment in Ethiopia stands at an appalling 40%. Terrifyingly many of these young Ethiopians who are out of the job market are not only unemployed, but also unemployable due mostly to the poor level of education they have received.
Last year the government approved 10 billion birr in revolving funds to curb unemployment in Ethiopia but the budget faces criticism due to poor utilization.
An estimated half a million recent graduates are unemployed in Ethiopia.