Decent jobs remain limited across Africa – Study

A study by the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) has revealed that decent and high-quality jobs remain limited across Africa despite employment growth.

Habtamu Edjigu, Economist with ACET, presented the findings at an Intergenerational Dialogue on Defining Job Quality for Africa’s Youth.

He said the study combined worker data from 22 African countries covering nearly 500,000 workers and employer data from more than 33,000 firms across 46 countries.

“Our findings show that decent jobs are still limited. On average, job quality remains low across the continent,” he said.

He said only 18 per cent of workers had health coverage, 19 per cent had access to social security, and only 26 per cent reported job satisfaction.

Mr Edjigu said most jobs were found in the service sector, followed by agriculture, while manufacturing accounted for the smallest share.

He explained that better quality jobs were mostly found in specialised sectors such as ICT, telecommunications, engineering, and pharmaceuticals.

“To summarise, job quality remains low across sectors. The challenge is not only to create more jobs but to improve the quality of existing jobs,” he said.

He noted that Small and Medium Enterprises played a key role in job creation and must be supported to create better quality employment.

The presentation concluded that stronger links between local firms and international partners could help improve wages, training opportunities, and working conditions.