Zimbabwe's unemployment rate at 6.6 percent: gov't survey

HARARE, May 23 (Xinhua) -- At least 6.6 percent of the economically active Zimbabwean population of 5.6 million people is unemployed, a new survey by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said Wednesday.

According to the 2017 Inter-Censal Demographic Survey (ICDS), 93.4 percent of the population is employed in one way or the other.

The ICDS is carried out once every five years and showed that the country has a total population of 13.57 million.

The survey was launched with technical and financial assistance from the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organization for Migration.

In terms of breakdown, 52 percent of the economically active population, amounting to 2.9 million, work in the agriculture sector while 14.8 percent are self-employed.

The data also revealed that 3 percent of children, who are under the age of 15, are working, which is against international labor conventions.

"The largest proportion of working children is involved in agriculture followed by unpaid family work," said Zimstat.

However, state institutions and independent players give different figures on unemployment levels. Many non-governmental organizations and some opposition political parties are likely to dismiss the survey as they prefer to put unemployment in Zimbabwe at more than 90 percent. Enditem