The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
The creation of two million jobs in line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation is an achievable target and Government is creating an enabling environment for employment creation, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Priscilla Mupfumira told The Sunday Mail yesterday.
Zim-Asset, which is in tandem with Zanu-PF’s 2013 winning election manifesto, says Government intends to create 2,2 million jobs by 2018.
Minister Mupfumira said government was on the right track in this regard and a recent International Labour Organisation report indicated that the country’s unemployment rate was 11 percent, contrary to long-held assumptions that 80 percent of working age Zimbabweans were jobless.
“Government is making headway in reducing unemployment. We are confident that our target of creating two million jobs can be achieved.
When we speak of two million jobs, we are not referring to the traditional way of working at a factory or in the office, but we are looking at the enabling environment created to enable people to earn a living,” she said.
Minister Mupfumira said government was regularising the informal sector, which is driving the country’s economy.
“The informal sector plays a significant role in employment creation. Statistics today show that in Zimbabwe there are more people employed in the informal sector. However, we do not know the exact number of people employed in such sectors because the figures keep increasing every day,” she said.
“When you look at the land reform, you will realise that hundreds of thousands of jobs were created. So Government is not stopping on that front.
This is why the mining sector, the small and medium scale sectors are going to grow in line with government’s plans to create more jobs.” She said the closure of some companies would not dampen Government’s job creation vision.
The two million-job target covers mining, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, health, education, finance, public services, transport, communication, water, electricity and construction.
