A shortage of wage employment persists in Malawi, where only 10.3 percent of workers hold permanent jobs, the latest Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM) released by the World Bank has shown.
The report says employment is largely informal and self-driven, with most workers engaged in low-productivity activities such as subsistence agriculture.
Despite rapid population growth, only 38.8 percent of working-age adults are employed, far below international benchmarks, the monitor shows, meaning that 61.2 percent of working-age adults are unemployed.
“Gender and education disparities are stark: men and university graduates fare better, while women and youth experience higher unemployment and exclusion.
“Malawi’s working-age population (15–64) totals 10.6 million, with 60 percent aged 15–35 and 79.5 percent living in rural areas,” the report says.
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It adds that education levels remain low, with 58 percent of the population having only primary schooling and just 2.7 percent holding university degrees, limiting access to higher-quality jobs.
“Labor force participation is modest at 50 percent, with sharp differences by gender (54.2 percent for men vs. 43.3 percent for women) and age (32.3 percent among youth vs. 60.5 percent among adults aged 25–34).
“Participation rises with education, underscoring its importance for labor market entry,” the monitor says.
Employment patterns also reveal limited structural transformation, with agriculture dominating and employing 39.3 percent of workers even under stricter definitions that exclude subsistence farming.
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The bank says labour underutilisation is widespread, affecting 55.5 percent of the working-age population and 66.4 percent of youth.
According to the monitor, unemployment stands at 19.7 percent, while underemployment and a growing potential labour force add to the challenge.
The Economic Monitor notes that new opportunities in agro processing, such as macadamia, soybeans, and groundnuts, and emerging mining projects show potential to improve the economy and create jobs along the value chain. It, however, says policy inconsistencies, foreign exchange shortages, and infrastructure constraints limit scale, competitiveness, and employment generation.
World Bank Country Manager for Malawi Firas Raad said Malawi has the talent and the opportunity to turn the tide, if the country moves quickly to stabilise the macroeconomy and clear the bottlenecks that make it hard to produce and export. Scotland-based economist Velli Nyirongo yesterday said the revelation by the Malawi Economic Monitor by the World Bank showing that only 10.3 percent of workers in Malawi hold permanent wage jobs highlight a structural challenge in the economy.
