Govt looks to informal sector for job creation

Ministry of Labour and Social Security Permanent Secretary Barnaby Mulenga says government has identified the informal sector as one of the avenues to combating the menace of unemployment in the country.

Speaking when he officiated at the Tripartite Plus Dialogue on the Youth Future of Work organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Lusaka today, Mr. Mulenga says government recognizes the role informal sector plays when it comes to job creation.

He says according to the latest labour force survey conducted recently, about 75.3 percent of people in Zambia are in the informal sector, while 23.7 percent are in the formal sector.

Mr Mulenga says this is compared to the 2012 survey when 17 percent were in the formal sector and 83 percent in the informal sector.

Speaking at the same event, International Labour Organization (ILO) Country Director for Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, Alexio Musindo stressed the importance of effective and participatory tripartite dialogue as a crucial mechanism to understand the challenges facing the country especially the youths, and how they can work together to ensure a more prosperous future for the work through social justice and decent work for all.

ILO Director General Guy Ryder recently launched the Future of Work Initiative which is one of the seven ILO Centenary Initiatives, a package of activities aimed at equipping the Organization to take up successfully the challenges of its social justice mandate in the future in the run up to 100 years of the Organization’s founding in 1919.