Jobs for the People

Statistics are useful as they tell a story. This story concerns employment and unemployment in the country. Apart from the human aspects of the situation you can also see how the country has evolved over a period.

The numbers show that the rate of unemployment has remained at 8% between 2012 and 2013. In general, women and youth are the main victims of unemployment. This is due to lack of training, qualifications and work experience.

The labour force for 2013 was at 571,200 which was a rise of 14,900 from 2012. Good news when more people find employment but still not enough. There are many young people leaving university with diplomas and are still unemployed after one year. One of the problems is that their qualifications do not fit-in with demand on the recruitment scene. There are stories of youth having to take on jobs that are lower than their university qualifications just to be able to start out in life. Other youth are having to change the focus of their studies to meet job requirements. To understand the current situation of many young graduates in Mauritius, read “Alarming number of young graduates without a job” on this link.

They say that women employment is increasing faster than male employment. This is probably due to the fact that women have benefited from government schemes such as from the National Empowerment Foundation (NEF). The NEF has been active in a concerted effort to cut women unemployment by offering training and placement.

However, more needs to be done to create jobs. This can only be achieved by the government’s continued efforts in attracting foreign companies to set-up on the island. Already there are positive signs in the financial and information, telecommunications technologies (ICT) sectors. If this positive trend continues the island will be a hub for the African and Indian Ocean regions.

Statistics Highlights
4th Quarter 2014 (updated)
National Empowerment Foundation