A comprehensive labor market evaluation by the Ethiopian Statistics Service reveals national unemployment at 9.6 percent, underscored by deep urban-rural divides
Staff Writer
(Nairobi, Kenya) — The Ethiopian Statistics Service (ESS) released its comprehensive labor market evaluation covering September 2023 to July 2025, revealing that national unemployment has reached 9.6 percent, with more than 5.2 million individuals currently out of work. The updated findings indicate that national unemployment has nearly doubled compared to the 5 percent baseline recorded two decades ago, reflecting structural pressure across the labor force driven by rapid demographic growth and shifting sectoral employment dynamics.
The survey underscores a widening gap between urban and rural labor markets. Urban unemployment reached 20.6 percent—more than double the rural unemployment rate of 10.2 percent—driven primarily by sustained rural-to-urban migration paired with limited formal job creation capacity across major cities. Youth labor metrics highlight severe structural bottlenecks, with youth unemployment reaching 12.9 percent nationally, indicating that one in eight working-age youth lacks employment. Furthermore, unemployed women outnumber men across both regional and urban classifications.
Municipal concentrations show significant variance across major administrative centers. Addis Ababa recorded an urban unemployment rate of 19.1 percent, while Dire Dawa registered 14.4 percent overall, with its urban core exceeding 20 percent. Across regional states, Amhara recorded the highest urban unemployment rate at 24.3 percent against an 8.6 percent rural rate, followed by Afar with 21.6 percent urban and 7.2 percent rural unemployment. Relative to total regional population, Tigray registered the highest overall unemployment rate at 16.3 percent, while Benishangul-Gumuz recorded the nation’s lowest rate at 5.6 percent.
The report documents a major structural transition in sectoral labor absorption over the past five years. The industrial sector experienced sluggish growth, increasing its share of total national employment by only 1.3 percentage points over five years—rising from 5.4 percent to 6.7 percent. Conversely, the service sector expanded strongly, growing its employment share by 8.9 percentage points compared to five years ago.
Meanwhile, the agricultural sector continues to contract as the primary employer. Although agriculture absorbed 79.6 percent of the national workforce five years ago, that figure has dropped to 69.4 percent. The Statistics Service concluded that strengthening urban industrial absorption capacity and targeted youth job creation remain essential to mitigating rising urban unemployment across the country.
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Unemployment has been a chronic issue since humanity assumed a settled way of life. In our time it has been a problem to many countries in Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. The number of the underemployed and jobless will continue to be a nagging headache for that country. The current war in the Middle East and internal conflicts will make it even worse. Very worrisome indeed!!!