Namibia
Agriculture is the sector that provides a livelihood
for the biggest number of people and accounts for 37% of all jobs in Namibia.
The country's largest employer is the government, followed by the wholesale
and retail sector. The Namibian economy is still characterized by an almost
complete dependency on imported South African consumer goods. The unemployment
rate is 34.8%. The rate of unemployment is higher for women than for men.
About half of formally employed Namibians are represented by one of the
country's 27 trade unions. Workers at the low end of the pay scale earn
as little as US$0.25 per hour, while some
managers in parastatals earn US$150,000 per year. The GDP per capita at
constant prices has continuously fallen since 1995. Coupled with the unequal
distribution of wealth, this indicates that the majority of Namibians
are actually getting poorer. The Namibian government is moving ahead with
a privatisation program begun in the mid 1990s. Realising the danger of
privatisation / commercialisation not only for its members but also for
the delivery of affordable services to the poor, Namibia's largest trade
union federation, the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) has recently
revived its standing committee on economics to focus particularly on this
issue. The NUNW prepared a presentation to the Cabinet sub-committee on
public sector restructuring and then went to state house (in October 2001)
to address the President directly.
- To read a detailed labor
market analysis for Namibia, download one of the following:
Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] [size 234 kb]
Microsoft Word [.doc] [size 1,652 kb]
Source:
LaRRI —
Labour Resource and Research Institute
P.O. Box 62423
Katutura,
Windhoek, Namibia
Tel: 264-61-212044
Fax: 264-61-217969
larri@namib.com
http://www.larri.com.na/
Data posted: December 2, 2001.
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