Unemployment Problems in Tanzania

Unemployment
There is no current record of the unemployment rate in Tanzania. The last record shown was in 2005 showing the unemployment rate at 12.9 percent and declining to 11 percent in 2006. Yet these numbers are not entirely accurate because of the reason that these are survey statistics taken by the governments and these statistics could be biased showing improvement in 2006. I do believe that the statistics are not credible because of such a large decrease in the unemployment rate in such a short span of one year. This survey was taken by the National Bureau of Statistics in Tanzania. As of 2007 the labor force consisted of 20.04 million people (CIA World Fact Book). The total labor force participation rate was 79.5%. The labor force participation rate was 81% for men and 73% for women as of 2007 (Bureau of Statistics). Men have increasingly been involved more because of increasing pressure from the global recession to look for a job in Tanzania.80 percent of people work in the agricultural sector while only 20 percent work in industries (A.V.Y Mbelle). Also the Integrated Labour Force Survey concluded that as a growing trend, more women are in the agricultural force than men because of their growing duties to their families. Men are inclined to do jobs with higher level of education such as industrial work. Women work because it is ideal for the survival of their family. The typical woman has about 6 kids so when they become older, these kids can take care of the elderly. This is not the only reason why Tanzanian women have more kids. A family can grow more crops when there are more kids. Another obvious reason is how there is a shortage of birth control pills in sub-Saharan Africa. Institutions such as the Red Cross are also trying to give as much as aid and sex education that they can supply.
One problem that the Tanzania government is trying to tackle is the growing problem of the number of young Tanzanians getting unemployed. In the 10-34 age group, unemployment has hit this group the most severe (Mwanjali , S). The reason why the youth have hit the hardest in unemployment is because of their lack of further education compared to the adults in Tanzania. Tanzania has implemented bold policies in the last 6 or 7 years to boost employment in the agricultural and industrial sectors. Vocation education and training programs have been implemented to boost youth employment President Jakaya Kikwete’s promise to the Tanzanians in 2006 was 1 million jobs by the end of the year in 2010 (Mwanjali , S).The National Employment Policy had four main objectives to increase unemployment and in turn reduce the large 30 percent poverty line. These objectives included private sector development, skills development, employment intensive works, and measures to support the labor market. The Tanzanian government believes that the increase of privatization and creation of small businesses will be the future of the backbone of Tanzania (United Nations Development Programme). Most of all these jobs available in Tanzania are all unskilled jobs because of the lack of education provided to everybody and the low literacy rate. Tanzania fears that some companies will invest somewhere else because of their lack of education. Their supply of labor is plentiful but the amount of high skilled workers is limited. Tanzania suffers from structural unemployment because of the high supply of workers and low demand for workers. The definition of structural employment is unemployment that results in labor markets insufficiently providing jobs for everyone who wants one (Mankiw, Gregory). Most workers are individuals who create their own crops and sell them individually to a number of small companies. Minimum wage laws, unions, and efficiency wages are not applicable to Tanzania because of the low productivity.