In August 2025 (Q3), the working age population (16 years and above) was around 8.6 million of whom around 4.9 million were employed, 754 thousand were unemployed, and 2.9 million were out of labour force.
The employment-to-population ratio (EPR) increased to 57% in August 2025 (Q3), up from 54.3 % in August 2024 (Q3). The unemployment rate stood at 13.4 % indicating that roughly for every 7 persons in the labour force, there was one person unemployed.
The labour underutilization rate stood at 56.7 % in August 2025 (Q3). It was higher among females (64.7 %) than males (48.3 %) and higher among youth (57.8 %) than adults (55.8 %).
The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) has published new findings from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the second quarter of 2025, revealing a decline in unemployment from 16.8% in Q2 2024 to 13.4% in Q2 2025. This makes 3.4% drop.
The survey focuses on the working-age population (aged 16 and above), which was estimated at 8.5 million people. Among them, 5.29 million are in the labour force meaning those who work for pay or profit and those who not employed but actively seeking and available to work for pay or profit, while 3.21 million are out of the labour force like people in substance agriculture, discouraged job seeker, exclusively students, elderly or disables.
Out of the 5.3 million people in the labour force, about 4.58 million are employed, meaning who worked for pay or profit, while 710,000 are unemployed meaning those who are not employed but actively seeking and available to work for pay or profit. This shows that around 5 out of every 10 people with working age in Rwanda are employed, and 1 out of every 10 in labour force is not employed but actively seeking and available to work for pay or profit.
The services sector remains the top sector to employ a lot of people in Rwanda accounting for 45.6% of all jobs. While agriculture follows with 38%, and industry contributes 16.4%.
The report also shows that among the unemployed, 55.7% are engaged in subsistence agriculture while other unemployed account 44.3%
The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) remains committed to providing accurate, timely, and relevant statistics to support evidence-based decision-making
