Africa’s unemployment rate looks relatively low by global standards. In 2025, the continent’s rate stood at 6.3%. But that figure tells only part of the story. More than a third of employed Africans live in working poverty; they are employed but live below the poverty line of $2.15 a day. Most workers are informally employed, and fewer than one in five people have social protection coverage.
Having a job does not necessarily mean earning enough to support a household, escaping poverty, or having protection when things go wrong. To understand the African labour market, it is necessary to look beyond unemployment to examine the type of work people do and how secure their livelihoods are.
Most Africans work, but most work informally
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines employment rate as the share of the working-age population who have worked at least an hour for pay or profit during a reference period of one week or seven days.
Under this definition, a person can be considered employed even if they work for only a short period. The measure captures whether someone has work, but it does not, on its own, establish whether that work provides a secure livelihood.
Africa has a growing working-age population, with more young people entering the labour market each year. The World Bank estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa needs to create around 15 million jobs annually to absorb its growing working-age population. When formal employment does not expand quickly enough, people still need to make a living. Many turn to self-employment or find work in agriculture, trade, transport, construction, food services and other activities.
Much of this work takes place in the informal economy. In 2025, an estimated 84.4% of employed people in Africa were informally employed, the highest share of any region. While informal employment does not necessarily mean a job is poorly paid, when it dominates a region, it raises important questions about workers’ earnings, security, and access to social protection.
Africa’s labour market varies sharply by region
Continental averages conceal different labour realities across Africa’s regions. In several African subregions, low unemployment coincides with high informal employment. In West Africa, the unemployment rate stood at 2.9% in 2025, while 91.2% of employment was informal. Central Africa recorded an unemployment rate of 6.8% alongside an informal employment rate of 93.1%. In Southern Africa, however, the unemployment rate was 31.1%, substantially higher than the rest of Africa, while informal employment accounted for only 40% of employment in the region.
The regional differences become clearer when working poverty and social protection are considered alongside unemployment and informal employment.
In Central Africa, 57.7% of employed people were living in working poverty, while only 7.8% of the population was covered by at least one social protection benefit, such as healthcare, pensions, unemployment support or maternity benefits. Despite having a high unemployment rate, Southern Africa’s working poverty stood at 15.3%, while social protection coverage reached 59.1%.
For Western, Eastern and Central Africa, low unemployment coexists with widespread informal employment and limited social protection. Meanwhile, Southern Africa has substantially higher unemployment but lower informality, less working poverty and broader social protection coverage.
Women face a wider gap in job security
Employment is different for men and women. Africa is the only region where more women are informally employed than men. In 2025, 88.6% of employed women in Africa were in informal employment, compared with 81.2% of employed men.
Women are also more likely to experience working poverty and have lower social protection coverage.
Women in Africa also carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work. The OECD estimates that women spend around 4.1 times as much time as men on these activities. This burden can limit the time available for paid work and reduce the opportunities women can pursue.
Measuring work means looking beyond unemployment
As Africa’s working population grows, the number of jobs created will be important. But what is even more important is the quality and security of those jobs and whether employment improves the life of an average African worker.
This has implications for how Africa measures progress in the labour market. Policymakers need to pay closer attention to job quality, productivity and social protection as these measures give a fuller picture of whether economic growth is translating to better livelihoods.
As new forms of work emerge and technology changes how we work, the goal would need to go beyond creating more opportunities for work. It should also include ensuring that those opportunities can support a more productive economy and more secure livelihoods.
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