Only 3% of Senegal's jobs are in the formal sector

Senegal's Formal Sector Is Only Three Percent Of Jobs: WB
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"The formal sector in Senegal accounts for only three percent of the jobs created every year in the west African country where unemployment rates hover above 25 percent, the World Bank said Thursday.

[World Bank Lead Economist] Jacques Morisset... said '100,000 people get employed every year, 97,000 of them in the informal sector.' A report on the state of employment in Senegal released two weeks ago, said 'it is when workers are not able to find jobs in the formal companies that they seek refuge in the informal sector.'...

According to the report, about a million people or 27.5 percent of Senegal's employable population have no jobs or are not adequately employed. Other estimates put the unemployment rate at 40 percent.

It said more than half of the workers in the informal sector have never been to school, recommending more training to up the numbers of qualified workers if Senegal, ranked among the world's 25 least developed countries, is to improve its economic productivity. ...

The report also noted the difficulties first time workers find in entering the job market. It said that 60 percent of the jobless in Senegal are aged 35 years or under. ..." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Agence de Presse Senegalaise and Sud Quotidien also report on the Senegal study.