Unemployment in Namibia – A call for multi-sectoral action

Sydwill Scholtz

By: Sydwill Scholtz, Labour Analyst

The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) released the latest 2023 unemployment statistics for the country in January 2025, and, needless to say, the results are nothing shy of shocking. The results indicate that unemployment remains a significant social challenge in the country with the inherent ripple effect of poverty and social unrest detracting from the country’s economic growth and development as far as foreign investments are concerned.

To tackle this as a country and national priority, we would need to adopt a multi-faceted approach that includes collaboration between policymakers, private sector involvement, and community-driven initiatives collectively. Based on the Labour Force report, 62.07% or 1,876,122 of the population of the total 3,022,401 falls within the working age of 15 to 65. Of this working-age portion of the population, the labour force aged between 35 and 65 amounted to 867,247, of which 63.1% were employed while the remaining 36.9% were unemployed.

The report outlined job-seeking and nonjob-seeking groups reporting that the vast majority of job seekers, 96.8% are discouraged job seekers. This means that almost all of the actively job-seeker’s needs are not met as far as opportunity is concerned causing them to be despondent. Looking at the youth unemployment rate specifically, with 1,018,529 citizens aged 15 to 34, the unemployed percentage of this group was found to be 44.4%.

Almost half of the youth, including tertiary insititution graduates and school-leaving certificate holders
are unemployed. This shows us that it is more difficult to enter the job market at a younger age and
that our economy does not have room to accommodate the level of graduates produced by our
tertiary institutions.

This raises another concern regarding the level of the school leaving certificate now being reduced
from grade 12 to grade 11 but maintaining the Namibia Qualification Authority accreditation level of
level 4.

Namibia recently experienced a situation where bachelor’s degree holders applied for employment
as a cleaner at an institution. This indicates that there might be a flood in a specific field or sector as
far as employment is concerned and hence job seekers would accept any form of employment just to
make ends meet and earn an income. Although a decrease of 1.7% from 2018 was recorded, in
combining the data of the potential Labour force and youth unemployment, we realise that overall,
61.4% of the group remains unemployed. We see that the younger generation is more interested in
the social media fields and becoming influencers of sorts than in seeking traditional employment
opportunities.

With many younger people starting their businesses the public should be urged to support these
small companies provided that the quality of service and delivery is on par with industry standards.
The Labour Force survey was conducted before the onset of the national minimum wage and the
staggering of the minimum wage in the specific sectors to get all sectors on par with the N$18.00 per
hour. Many employers are facing hardship themselves and rest with the responsibility of their own
families in conjunction with the families of their employees.

The likely effect this would have on the employment statistics seems to be negative in the sense that companies cannot increase their fees sufficiently drastically to accommodate these employees on the minimum wage and it would be interesting to see what effect it would have on the retrenchment or redundancy figures filed with the office of the Labour Commissioner. It would be interesting to compare the pre and post-minimum wage unemployment figures.

Are we saying that it is better to remunerate fewer employees at a higher rate than to further divide
the earnings amongst more employed staff albeit perhaps at a lower rate?

To my mind, this defeats the purpose of what we would want to achieve in the creation of economic empowerment and the reduction of the unemployment rate and poverty as an ultimate result.
A major contributing factor to unemployment remains a lack of financial literacy. Many people live
beyond their financial means and in doing so dig a proverbial debt hole for themselves that would be
difficult to come out of. The only solution would be to obtain the necessary skills and tools to allow them to manage their financial affairs in a manner that they can comprehend for the furtherance of their business.

Employers are encouraged to allow their employees to undergo the sessions needed for
them to manage their finances prudently within their situations. However, this is rather easier said than done. Many of the employed portion of the population also live in poverty and have no other means of survival than going into debt just to make ends meet.

This is the sad reality Namibians face daily, and there is no overnight fix for this problem, as a country,
we need Government, and private sector as well as community intervention strategically designed to
curb unemployment, educate youngsters on financial literacy, and ensure Namibian citizens are
considered first before a foreign national can be afforded an employment opportunity.

Collaboration and a strong drive for local employment in conjunction with the education of
employees on financial matters might be a good start to leverage from the low base of which to
improve from.

Sydwill Scholtz is a Labour Analyst, IR and Management Consultant, Strategist, and Chairperson of the FundaAtWork Namibia Pension and Provident Umbrella Funds. He also serves as a board member of the trustees for the Momentum Preservation Pension and Provident Funds.