In 2021, the working age population (16 years and above) was 7,718,871 of which 4,166,625 persons (54.0 percent) were in the labour force, while 3,552,246 were outside the labour force. For those in the labour force, 3,287,697 were employed, while 878,929 were unemployed.
Among those outside the labour force, 1605,248 persons were engaged wholly or mostly in subsistence foodstuff production, not classified as employment according to the 2013 international standards on statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization.
The annual unemployment rate stood at 21.1 percent, indicating that roughly for five persons in the labour force there was one person unemployed. The unemployment rate was higher among women (24.1 percent) than among men (18.5 percent) and higher among youth(26.5) than among adults (17.1 percent).
It was relatively the same in the urban and rural areas (21.2 and 20.8 percent respectively).
The full count of workers in agriculture sector reveals that around 3,375,244 people (43.7percent) of working age population were involved in agriculture activity either in subsistence or market oriented in 2021.
The proportion of workforce3 who was mainly engaged in agriculture was 66.4 percent.