By: Sainabou Gassama
According to the most recent survey conducted by the government of The Gambia and development partners, which includes the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS), the findings indicate that the rate of unemployment among young people is three times higher than that of adults. Moreover, a considerable number of children aged between 5 and 17 are engaged in child labour.
Moreover, according to the findings, youth are facing challenges in entering the labour market and accessing quality jobs.
“In addition, the research shows that young people are experiencing difficulties when it comes to entering the job market and securing high-quality employment opportunities.
“The youth’s labour force participation rate is around fifteen points lower than that of the adults (38.1% compared to 53.5%). The combined rate of unemployment and potential labour force (LU3) reaches 38.6 per cent.
“Furthermore, almost half of the youths are underutilized, (LU4) stands at 48.6 per cent against 30.6 per cent among adults. On average, six in ten youth work as self-employed and are mainly engaged in informal employment (84.0%).
“Similar to the adult population, some gender disparities persist, young women are worse off than young males. Moreover, the survey reveals that 45.3 per cent of the youth are neither in employment nor in education or training.”
The survey further revealed that child labour is more prevalent in rural areas for both boys and girls. In fact, the percentage of children engaged in child labour in rural areas is almost four times higher (38.2%) than in urban areas (10.3%). Additionally, almost half of the children in Mansakonko, Kuntaur, and Janjanbureh are involved in child labour.
“More than one-third of the children aged 5-14 (36.3%) are in child labour and mainly perform in agricultural activities. While the rate reaches 46.7% among children aged 15-17.
“The survey assesses the impact of work on children’s education. On average, 23.0 per cent of children aged 5-14 years work, the majority of them continue going to school (15.1%) and the remainder (7.9%) only work.”
“Nevertheless, the share of children who only work is doubled in rural areas (13.1%).
“In the older age group (15-17 years), 36.4 per cent of the children work but still, the majority of them pursue education. The rate of children engaged in work in rural areas amounts to 57.6 per cent of whom 26 per cent only work,” according to the findings.
