Ethiopian gov't says 759,000 regular jobs created past 9 months

ADDIS ABABA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government said Thursday that more than 759,000 regular job opportunities were created during the past nine months.

The reported number of job opportunities have mainly benefited the burgeoning youth population in regular employment sectors, mainly in the manufacturing, construction, service and trade sectors, says the Ethiopian Urban Job Creation and Food Security Council in its report presented to the parliament.

According to the report, the 759,000 regular job opportunities that were created during the past nine months accounted for close to 79 percent of the initial plan that was set by the council.

Some 309,100, out of the total 759,000 youth who have benefited as part of the Ethiopian government's initiative that envisaged to create job opportunities in federal cities across the East African country, are said to be women.

Ethiopia's manufacturing sector, followed by the construction industry, was said to be at the forefront in creating job opportunities for the burgeoning working class Ethiopians during the reported period.

During the past 2016/2017 Ethiopian fiscal year, the council, which had an initial plan of reaching 2.1 million citizens through its job creation the initiatives, was able to create 1.7 million jobs.

The council had been implementing a platform to register job-seekers across the country, in which 1.7 million people were registered last fiscal year, who were eventually employed in various sectors.

The Ethiopian Urban Job Creation and Food Security Council, which mainly targets Ethiopia's youth population through its job creation activities, said that 71 percent of the beneficiaries last fiscal year were youngsters. Enditem