Maputo — 18.4 per cent of the adult Mozambican population is unemployed, according to the latest Household Budget Survey (IOF 2022), unveiled in Maputo on Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

According to INE demographer, Abdulai Dade, who presented the survey, "The unemployment rate at the country level is 18.4%. Among men it is 18.7% and women 18.1%. There is no significant difference by sex. In the urban area (31.0%) it is higher than in the rural area (12.1%). We have Maputo city and province with the highest unemployment rate, with 36.5 and 33.1 per cent respectively'.

"The central province of Tete has the lowest unemployment rate, of about 13 per cent', he added.

As for the employment rate in Mozambique, according to the 2022 IOF, it stands at around 71.4 per cent, with 81.5 per cent in rural areas and 54.4 per cent in urban areas.

"The fact that it is higher in the rural area depends on the concept of work, In the rural areas, as soon as dawn breaks the population goes to the fields and because this is an economic activity, it is considered employment', Dade explained.

The figure is slightly higher among men (73.2 per cent) than women (69.8 per cent).The lowest employment rates at national level are in Maputo province and city, with 53.7 per cent and 48.3 per cent respectively, and the highest are recorded in Zambézia (79.0 per cent) and Tete (78.4 per cent).

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), a person is considered to be employed, if he or she is aged 15 or over and has worked for at least one hour in the last seven days prior to the survey, if he or she helps a family member in the production of goods and services, without remuneration, or if he or she does not work but was employed during the period in question.