Unemployment rates in Zimbabwe are often reported to be between 80 and 90 percent, but these rates did not take into account the vast numbers of people in informal employment. According to a chart published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a UN agency, on its website Zimbabwe’s real unemployment rate has hovered around five percent since 2006. An exception was when it reached 6.4 percent in 2009.
The numbers of those in formal employment are steadily decreasing in Zimbabwe as an economic squeeze tightens. More than 6000 people were reported officially retrenched last year. Zimbabwe has more than 230,000 civil servants.
Efforts by President Robert Mugabe’s government to tax the vast informal sector are being met with resistance. Late last year, authorities in Harare announced plans to force airtime, vegetable and newspaper vendors to pay US1 (around R11.61 at current exchange rates) in tax per day.
Most of those working in the informal sector earn less than US200 per month.
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