Employment and wages

The region’s average urban unemployment rate held steady at 9.3% in 2018 after increasing by 2.4 percentage points between 2014 and 2017. In the same period, the regional urban employment rate is estimated to have risen slightly (by 0.1 percentage points) for the first time since 2013. Even so, the 2018 rate was still 1.3 percentage points below its 2013 level. This rise in the employment-to-population ratio was not enough to reduce the urban unemployment rate because more people entered the labour market in search of work. On a year-on-year comparison, this increase was reflected in what was likewise a small rise in the participation rate, a trend that began in 2015.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Decent Work and Economic Growth