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JIMMA UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
MAY 2012
JIMMA, ETHIOPIA
Acknowledgement
First praise to be for Allah, who is the most merciful and gracious and creater and sustainer of this
universe and who made all things possible to me throughout my life.
Secondly, I would like to express my deeply thanks to my advisor Esubalew Ayalew for his
constructive criticism comment and respectfulness and for his guidance to achieve accurate work.
Thirdly, I want to thank my brother Abdela Jemal and all my family for their investment on my
education.
Finally, I would like to thank too my secretary W/ro Mulu Tilahun and also those who had not
been mentioned their name but contribute a lot to this achievement.
I
Abstract
This paper is entitled to cause and consequences of unemployment in East Hararge Grawa town.
The rationale behind this paper is that unemployment has negative effect on social economic
development of any country. Its challenge is also still increase in Grawa town
As general objective of the study try to examine the cause and consequences of unemployment in
Gerawa town. The study also use descriptive method of analysis and the study use various
secondary data collect from MEDaC, ILO , CSA and from any other sources related book and
from Grawa town Administrations and statistical bureau.
It helpful to think of unemployment in Grawa town having various types of causes. Even if there
may be overlaps and it s however, difficult to mention all of them majority of them far from
education system, over growing rural urban migration and non work status of the society in
agricultures.
One of the bases that human life needs to fulfill its basic requirement in his/her access to work.
Work is also source of knowledge and health which as result requires man to work. Those persons
that do not have access tO both formal and informal sector employment of the economy engaged
in bad way of life. In general unemployment has a wide spread social, economical and political
consequences that will be discussed later.
II
Acronyms
List of Tables
April 2009---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24
Figure 3.1 Unemployment rate by literacy status during the four survey
(Grawa town)----------------------------------------------------------------------- 28
town)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29
Grawa town.----------------------------------------------------------------------- 32
Table 3.2.1 Number of offenders by sex 2008-2011/12 ------------------------------- 35
IV
Table of content
Title Page
Acknowledgement ---------------------------------------------------------------- I
Abstract------------------------------------------------------------------------------ II
CHAPTER ONE
1. Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
2. Literature Review------------------------------------------------------------------ 7
unemployment ------------------------------------------------------------- 20
CHAPTER THREE
Level-------------------------------------------------------------------- 26
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Conclusion------------------------------------------------------------------ 36
Reference---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40
VI
CHAPTER ONE
1. Introduction
Unemployment had been a serious problem of international economy from the period of great
depression when high level of unemployment existed in the world.
Structural unemployment in Europe, Job in security in the united state and restructuring problem
in soviet union mere some of the international economic problem concerned unemployment.
(Ramonet, 1998).
Though in different magnitude, unemployment still exists in the world. The seriousness of the
problem may vary from one country to another. But it is a concern of both the developed and
underdeveloped nations.
High population growth, increasing rural-urban migration and low level of economic growth
present high unemployment level. The prospect of unemployment in developing countries,
especially in sub-saharan Africa has worsened because of high population growth and low level of
economic growth and also other reasons. (CSA, 2005)
There are also external factors to mention few, shortage of foreign exchange, balance of payment
problem and unfavorable term of trade that aggravated un employment (Tecle, 2002).
In this regard, Ethiopia is it is one of these countries highly exposed to complex social and
economic problems like high unemployment. Unemployment rate has been constantly increasing
form 7.15% in 1994 to 32.2% in 2005.
And also unemployment rate in Grawa town 7.22% in 2000 and 8.6% in 2005 (Grawa town
administration report, 2007).
The grawa town as one of the town in Ethiopia has been affected by the challenging problem of
unemployment. Internal migration that enlarged the Grawa town population, There are around
29,000 in habitants today, regarded as the major contributor to the creation of large number of
unemployed labor force in different years 850 in 2002, 1050 in 2005 jobless labor forces were
registered in the town Grawa (Grawa town administration, report, 2010).
The overall incident that is why the town now days it confined with a large number of unemployed
and since there is no unemployment benefits, unlike it is the case of on developed countries, there
unemployed are enjoying a life which is very much tragic even if labor force is one of the factors
of production, Ethiopia did not exploit it efficiently.
Unemployment was one of the major prevailing social and economic problems in almost all
countries of the world which every country should fight against. Africa particularly Ethiopia is
confronted with this problem that has been extremely challenging.
One of the major consequence of the rapid urbanization process has been the bargaining supply of
job seekers in both the modern (formal) and informal sectors of the urban economy. In many
developing countries, the supply of workers far exceeds the demand, the result being extremely
high rate of the unemployment and under employment in urban area (Todaro, 2006).
Ethiopia was characterized by high growth in population and almost a subsistence economy.
Unbalanced growth between the population and the economy has an effect on employment and
growing labor forces that tended to increase unemployment. Because of this high population
growth resulted from internal migration, unemployment problem is becoming more acute in the
country and reaching its alarming stage in Gerawa town.
However, studies on the cases and consequences of this challenging problem in the Gerawa town
are not yet made, this is the Gerawa that initiated me to make study on the specified subject.
1.3.1 The general objective of the study was to examine the cause and
town
The social and economic consequences that could arise in association with the high and growing
unemployment are cited and was added further in the study and it is tried to put the situation in
brief. Hence, the study is believed to be relevant in that it could motivate government, non-
government organizations and community of large to take measures to help the unemployed for
the time being and to establish sustainable employment schemes in the future and it could be
helpful somehow to initiate policy makers design policy concerns, which are necessary to tackle
the problem.
Moreover, it benefits the unemployed to understand their situation and to take measures to be
being employed and play role in eliminating this complex problem of unemployment in Grawa
town.
Concerning the Scope/coverage of the study particularly emphasis was given to Gerawa town due
to fact that the problem was making serious here in Gerawa town due to the lack of financial
resources and time, it would not cover the area.
Several publications were referred and was in the preparation of this study and most of the
information in it is more dependents on the data/ideas provided in different years. Thus, it would
be collected using appropriate method as much as possible. The secondary data would have been
gathered through careful review of related document.
The data that gathers from respective source was organized and classified according to their
similarities. The analysis was descriptive method and figurative discussion and also the data was
analyzed by using frequency tables and percentages, and graphical method. This study wholly
entails the data through method of analysis together with figurative discussions that draw logical
remarks.
The research paper was structured to have four chapter arranged sequentially. The first chapter
consists of the introduction and methodology which are pertinent for the study. Second chapter
deals with theoretical and empirical literature discussions. The third chapter focus on the deal
with analization and discussion . Finally the last chapter was present the conclusions and
recommendations that must be made on the basis of the main finding of the research.
One that was the most limiting factor for the study is that the data requirements were not fully
satisfied due to the lack of time series data on unemployment which may make the study partial in
coverage and unreliable in some circumstances. These inadequacies of data problem of access to
information, and shortage of time have effect on quality and coverage of the study. Hence, it is
and obligation to concentrate on available data only and give conclusions and suggestions based
on it.
CHAPTER TWO
2. Literature Review
Many economists, different institutions and authorities have said much on the issue of
unemployment. To mention few, “unemployed are those who have no jobs while they are actively
searching for job and are willing to be employed at the going wage rate” ( Smith, 1991.)
First a person has to be qualified for job. A person is not involuntarily unemployed if one seeks
jobs that one is produced from obtaining because of a lack of training experience, and education .
Second a person is not considered unemployed if he/she is not seeking a job and willing to work at
the market wage rate. Some may decide to with draw their labor services because the prefer
leisure to work at the market.
According to what Todaro (1994) wrote, we must take into account, in addition to openly
unemployed, the larger numbers of workers who may be visibly active but in economic sense are
grossly underutilized. He said that Edwards has identified the following forms of labor under
utilization or unemployment.
a) Open unemployment: both voluntary [who exclude themselves from some jobs implying
some other means of support than employment] and involuntary [where workers are willing to
work but unable to find jobs].
b) Under employed: those working less than they would like to do.
c) The visibility active but underutilized: Those who would not be under employed or
unemployed but who infact have found alternative means of making time including.
II. Hidden unemployment: Those who are engaged in second choice non-employment perhaps
notably education and household chores, primarily because job opportunities are not available at
the level of education attained or for women, given social mores.
III. The prematurely retired: This is evident and apparently growing in civic service because in
many countries retirement ages are failing.
d) The impaired: Those who may work fulltime but whose intensity of effort
e) The unproductive: Those who can provide the human resource necessarily for productive
work but who struggle long with inadequate complementary resources..
b) Currently available for work: i.e were available for paid employment or self-employment.
c) Seeking working: i.e had taken specific steps in specified reference period to seek paid or
self-employment
Rises because labor markets are inherently dynamic, because information flows are imperfect, and
it takes time to unemployed workers and employees to find each other.
The following figure shows labor market where demand curve is do and supply curves ‘S’
employment ‘E’ and wage are ‘wo’ even in market equilibrium or full employment situation, there
will still be some frictional unemployment because some people will be between jobs.
Wage So
Wo
W1
D1 Do
E1 E0 Employment
Some people will quit their job, to search the other employment. Moreover, random fluctuations
in demand across will cause some firms to lay off workers at the same time the other firm will be
seeking to hire new employees, because information about the characteristics of those searching
for work and the nature of job cannot instantly be know or evaluated, it takes time for job matches
to be made between employeer and employers.
The level of frictional unemployment in an economy is determined by the flows of individuals in
to and out of the labor market and the speed by the prevailing economic institutions and
institutional changes.
Structural unemployment arise because due to changes in the pattern of labor demand cause
mismatch between the skills demanded and supplied in given area or cause an imbalance between
the supply and demand for workers across areas. If wages are completely flexible and if costs of
occupational or geographical mobiliteis were low, market adjustment would quickly eliminate this
types of unemployment.
A two-sector labor market model as the following figure shows can be used to illustrate this point.
Suppose that market ‘A’ is the market for semi-skilled workers in the shoe industry and that
market ‘B’ is the market for skilled computer programmers and suppose that initially both markets
are in equilibrium.
adjustment.
wage SOA
WOA
DOA’
DOA
Employment
EIA EOA
wage SOB
WIB
WOB DIB’
DIB
Employment
EOB EIB
Given demand and supply in both market, they have their respective equilibrium levels. Because
of difference in training costs and non-specularity conditions of unemployment, the wage need not
be equal into two sectors. Now the demand for semi-skilled shoe workers fall to DIA, due to
foreign import competiton, while the demand for computer programmers rises to DIB as result of
increased use of computers.
If real wage are flexible downwards in market ‘A’ because of a union contract provisions, social
norms on government legislation, employment of semi-skilled shoe employees will fall to ‘EIA’
but employment and wage of computer programmers will rise to EIB and WIB respectively. Then
unemployment of EOA-EIA workers would be created in the short run.
If shoe industry employees could costless becomes computers programmers, these unemployed
workers would move to market ‘B’ and since wages are assumed flexible there, eventually all of
the unemployment would be eliminated. Structural unemployment arises however, when costs of
adjustment are sufficiently high to produce such movement. The cost of displaced individuals,
may be expensive and it may be difficult for them to borrow funds for job training given the
limited time. Geographical imbalance can be analyzed in the same frame work, suppose that
market “A” refers to as now belt city and market “B” refers to sun belt city, both employing the
same types of labor. When demand falls in market “A” and unemployment increase because of
wages are not completely flexible, these unemployed worker continue to wait for jobs in their city
for at least there reasons.
1. Information flows are imperfect so that workers may be unaware of the availability jobs some
where away.
2. The direct money costs if such a move, including moving costs and the transaction costs in
buying and seeking a home, are high
3. The psychological costs of moving long distance are sufficiently high that many workers who
becomes unemployed, due either to plant to shut down or to permanent lay off, express an interest
in searching for jobs outside their immediate geographical area. Structural unemployment arises
then been use of changing patterns of labor demand that occur in the face of rigid wages and high
costs of occupational or geographical mobility and technological change.
Demand deficient unemployment occurs when the aggregate demand for labor declines in the face
of down ward inflexibility in real wage. Returning to figure 1, suppose that temporary decline is
aggregate demand leads to a shift in labor demand curve to D1 if real wages are in flexible down
wards, employment will fall to E1, and (E0-E1) additional workers will become unemployed.
This employment decline occurs when forms temporarily lay off workers and reduce the rate at
which they replace those who quit or retire. That is, flows in to unemployment increase while
flows into
According to Todaro(1994), to day many developing countries are ploughed by historically unique
combination of massive rural-urban population movements, stagnating economy and growing
unemployment substantial unemployment in LDC’s economics is probably one of the most
striking symptoms of their in adequate development. In a wide spectrum of poor counties open
unemployment especially in urban areas affect the labour force.
Some empirical data by Todaro (1994) confirms the above facts that the unemployment is high in
developing countries.
Continents year
Unemployment rate
1960
1970
1980
1990
All Developing
6.7
7.4
7.8
8.2
Africa
7.7
9.6
9.8
9.9
Asia
6.8
7.1
7.7
8.3
Latin America
4.7
5.1
5.8
5.5
Source: Todaro, 1994
As Todaro (1994) suggested, the rural-urban migration is also other cause for the ongoing problem
of unemployment in LDCs. It is in this context of slowly growing urban employment
opportunities accompanied by disproportionally high rate of rural-urban migration that the chronic
urban unemployment and underemployment problem has emerged in developing countries
particularly in Africa.
Though the above suggestion on the cause of unemployment by the different authors are more or
less acceptable, educational system, non work status of the society in adequate attention to
agricultural and growing rural-urban migration are some from the major causes of the problem in
less developing countries. This unemployment problem is not mater of absolute lack of useful
things that might be done but also a shortage of modern jobs in elation to the number of
jobseekers.
The different economists and policy makers recommended different strategies and policies to
eliminate the problem or improving employment in developing countries. O.Ed ward (1984)
recommended that product mix, appropriate technologies, use of capital and rural-urban balance of
job opportunities are among the major strategies to eliminate the massive unemployment and
improving employment opportunities in less developing countries.
G.M.Ishumi (1990) argued that the growing urban unemployment in Kenya is closely connected
with. The high rate of urbanization and population growing in recent years.
Kenya
Unemployed
Un employment rate%
M
F
Total
M
F
Total
698.2
1760.7
2459.0
13.0
28.4
41.4
G.M Ishumi (1990) argued that the growing urban unemployment in Kenya is closely connected
with the high rate of urbanization and population growth in recent years.
Unemployment in Ethiopia is viewed by many intellectuals as very high and more adverse in
urban centers of the nations particularly in Gerawa town.
One publication of MEDaC(1999) confers this idea. In general, open unemployment in Ethiopia
seems to be phenomenon being prevent in the Gerawa town with the majority of unemployed
people young with modest levels of formal education. Following table confirms this idea.
Table 2.3 youth unemployed
Nation
Year
Share youth unemployed total unemployed
Ethiopia
M
F
Total
1990
84.6
91.1
88.5
1993
76.9
91.8
82.2
1994
80.2
91.9
85.1
1997
81.8
93.7
87.1
1998
83.2
95.5
88.6
1999
79.1
91.2
84.4
The economy of Ethiopia has proven unable to accommodate the rapid growth of labor force.
Thus, unemployment became a serious problem in town aras.
As many suggested, the primary reason is that the growth of the economy and its capacity to
create jobs have not keep peace with the population growth. In fact only about 25,000 formal
wage sector jobs are being annually created while 6000,000- 800,000 individual annually are
entering the labor market [ILO, 1993]. Though the above suggestins on the issues of
unemployment in Ethiopia are acceptable, there are other issues that have to be discussed
concerned the causes of unemployment such as educational system, over growth in rural-urban
migration and non-work status of the society in agriculture and its consequences such as political,
economical and social cost.
The essential feature of the theory is that the labor market forces of supply and demand respond to
changes in real wages. Thus, unemployment is the consequences of real wages being an
remaining too high to allow the labor market to deer, government wage regulation and especially
powerful trade unions are identify as significant causal factors. Thus, unemployment in the
classical system hanges or not creating markets. The policy implication flowing firm classical
analysis of unemployment is that in order to reduce unemployment it needs reduces government
regulation and reduce trade union power and make the labor (Smith).
This school of thought focuses, on fiscal policy regulation like tax cut by creating the relationship
between the government expenditure and unemployment. Keynes argued that to expand national
income and then expand employment by reducing taxes, “The tax cus was intended to stimulate
expenditure on consumption and investment and thus lead to higher income and employment|.
(Mankiw, 2002).
The causes of the tax was followed by an economic boom which in the unemployment rate fall.
According to supply spiders, which workers are allowed to keep a higher fractions of their
earnings they supply substantially more labor (Mankiw, 2000).
2.5.3 New Keynesians theory of unemployment
The new Keynesians also argued that most sometimes do not clear even when individually and
looking out for their own interest. Because of both information problem and costs of changing
prices lead to some price rigidties and as result, create a possibility of fluctuations of
employment. For example in the labor market firms that cut wages not only reduce the cost labor
but also likely to wind up with poor quality labor force. Thus they will be reluctant to cut wages.
If it is cost for firms to change the prices they change and the wage they pay the change will be
infrequent, but if all firms adjusts prices and wages infrequently, the economy wide level wages
and prices may not be flexible enough to avoid occasional periods of even high unemployment
(Darbash; 1981).
The new classical school argue based on the assumption of market clearing. “There are no reason
why firms or workers would not adjust wages or prices if that would make them better off”.
Accordingly prices and wages adjust in order to equate supply and demand in other words, market
clear. The implication of this assumption is: that there is no possibility for involuntary
unemployment. Any unemployed person who really wants job will offer from some employer.
Flexible adjustment of wages and price leaves all individuals on work at the going wage and firms
can produce and sell as much as they want to the going price. (New classical theory).
As Todaro (2006) state that rural-urban migration was once viewed favorably in the economic
development literature. Internal migration was thought to be natural process in which surplus
labor was gradually with drawn from the rural sector to provide needed man power for urban
industrial growth. The process was demand socially beneficial because human resources were
being shifted from locations. Where their social marginal product was often assume to be zero to
places where this marginal product was not only positive but also rapidly growing as result of
capital accumulation and technological progress(Ibid). In contrast to this view point it is now
abundantly clear from recent least developed countries experience that rates for rural-urban
migratin continue to exceeds rates of rural job creation and to surplus greatly the absorption
capacity of both industry and urban social services no longer is migration viewed by economists
as beneficent process necessary to solve problem of growing urban labor demand(Ibid). In Africa
the magnitude of rural-urban migrations has greatly exceeds the capacity of the modern industrial
sector to absorb the migrants so that it can only employee productively small proportion of
industrialization process itself. A process that has typically field to produce growth of job
opportunities at any things near the rate of out growth. (Nodegwa and Powelson: 1973)
However, inspite of these rising level of over unemployment and even high level of under
employment, the rate of rural-urban migration shows no sign of declaration. To the extent that
many newly arriving migrants are likely to joint. The growing pools of unemployed and to the
extent that an increasingly large proportion of these migrant represent the more educated segment
of the society whose productive potential in largely being dissipated.
The process of continued rural-urban migration at present levels can no longer be said to represent
describe economic phenomenon(Ibid).
Unemployment is the state of persons who is out of work and actively looking for job. The term
does not refers to people who are not seeking work because of age, illness or mental or physical
disability. Nor does it refers to people who are attending school or keeping houses. Such people
and classified as out of the labor force rather that unemployed (world book (2001).
Unemployment may include serious problem for both individual and society as a whole. For the
individual it means loss of income and increase of prolonged unemployment, may result in loss of
self respect. For society, it result in lost production and, in some cases, criminal or other antisocial
behavior until the 1900’s most people considered laziness the main causes of unemployment , but
to day, they realize that men and women may be out of work through no fault of their own(Ibid).
Those with out regular employment or with only scattered part time employment are usually also
among the very poor. Those with regular paid employment in the public or private sector are
typically among the middle to upper income groups. But it would be wrong to assume that
everyone who does not have a job is necessarily poor while who’s who work fulltime are
relatively will off. This is because there may be many unemployed urban worker who are
voluntarily unemployed in the sense that they are searching for specific type of job perhaps
because of high expectations based on their presumed educational or skill qualifications. They
refuse to accept jobs which they feel have outside sourse of financial support (example) relatives
friends or local money leaders such people are unemployed be definition, but they may not be
poor (Todaro; 1994). Similarly, there are many individual who may work full time interms of
hours per day not may nevertheless earn every little income. Many employed workers in these
called urban informal sector (e.g trader, petty service providers, workers in repair shops etc) may
be so classified such people are be definition fully employed but often they are still very
poor(Ibid). In spite of the above reservations about a too literal linkage between unemployment
and poverty, it remains true that one of the major mechanisms for reducing poverty and in equality
in less developed nations in the provision of adequately paid, productivity employment
opportunities for the very poor. The creation of more employment opportunities should not be
regarded as the sole solution to the poverty problem(Ibid).
Education appears to be an important factor both for migration and an employment level. Today,
the problem of unemployment has emerged as the most striking symptom of lack of development
in almost all developing countries and the problem had reportedly concentrated among the
educated youth. (Alemayhu Ga and Berhanu N 1990).
In part, this counteraction of un employment among the younger age groups reflect the
disproportionate number of younger persons with in a population which is turn a result of this
rapid population growth and hence the labor force.
Another explanation for the high proportion of young person among the unemployed is the rapid
expansion of education which promotes a large number of school levels to aspire to urban wage,
earning jobs for in excess of the number of opportunities available(Ibid).
As urban labor supply continues to out pace demand, tow forces are set in motions on the demand,
side, jobs which were for merly filled by, say those with primary schooling now require a
secondary school certificate. On the supply side, jobs aspirants now need to get same extra years
of further education in order to “qualify” for jobs which only a few years earliest were being filled
by those less education (Todaro 1994).
One migration types rural-urban migration in Ethiopia in significant type of movement for spatial
distribution of population the attraction to urban areas, monthly to one primate city (Addis Ababa,
is largely economic and due to rural-urban income and quality of life differentiates (Befekadu, and
Berhanu 1999/2000).
The main story regarding the labor market is the rapid growth of the work force, as result of high
population growth. Combined with fewer farming opportunities for the next generation, and
relatively slow creation of new jobs in the modern sector this is resulting in growing
unemployment and under employment pressure. Economic activity rates in urban areas are
relatively low, and have been declining somewhat (from 66% in 1999 to 58% in 2003), although
this is to some extent reflection of growing school enrolments that keep youth out of the labor
force longer (MOFED, 2005/06).
The incidence of unemployment was relatively lower for those with non formal education (9%)
and holders of diploma and above (12%) unemployment, on the other hand is very high, especially
among youth surveys of the last 5 years (1999-2004) in Ethiopia show that slight decline in urban
unemployment among males and slight increase among females, and also the duration of
unemployment has shortened. As in most countries un employment is highest among youth (who
have less marketable skills and experiences but who also tend to live with their families, and often
not subject to the same immediate pressures of find work that apply to slightly order married men
and women). It is also generally higher among women than men of wage employment the public
sector still account for about 40% (source MOFED, 2005/06) wages and low, and for less
educated wages, in urban employment are just about at the poverty line.
Wages rise dramatically with education levels while schooling clearly pays, in the future it is
likely that completing primarily and secondary education will be less of guarantee of finding
employment than it was rise past, as the labor market becomes more saturated.
None the less with the expansion of educations, the average skill level of the work force is
increasing and this should pay off in productivity gains(Ibid). There are big urban-rural formal-
informal and gender gaps in employment and wages labor mobility is limited especially between
rural area and towns, although there in increasing evidence of step migration, from smaller to
larger town. As in most countries, immigrants start out near the bottom of the urban job market,
but their evidence that their let improves over time(Ibid).
2.6.4 Urban poverty and population Dynamics
Currently (2004/05; 16% of the country total population or some 11.7 million people, live in urban
areas. The urban population is growing at rate of about 4.4% per year, and is estimated to reach
22 million people by 2020. It is important to recognize the over whelming weight of Addis Ababa
in the urban picture in Ethiopia; Addis Ababa is true primate city, with about 3 million people, 14
times higher than Dire Dawa, the second largest city in Ethiopia. While final analysis will have to
await the result of the 2004/05, there are some indications that there has been a modest decline in
urban poverty in recent years. Moreover recent urban growth has been unprecedented, mainly as
result of rural-urban migration, resulting in growing welfare and housing problems for the new
urban poor and increasing urban unemployment.
CHAPTER THREE
3. Data Analysis
Table 3.1 clearly shows that the unemployed are predominantly young men and women about 77
percent of the unemployed are between the age 15-34. Between this age female account 78
percent, where as males account 75 percent out of the total unemployed population 36 percent are
female 21 percent are males between the specified ages.
This confirms that more females are unemployed than males. Table show that the proportion of
unemployment in the first two groups rises where as it gets declined in the rest age group. The
highest unemployment out of the total unemployed population is at age group 15-20 and the
unemployment rate for male and female is the highest at the 21-25 age groups.
Despite, the fact that labor is a good source of wealth, in the context of Ethiopia; the young and
energetic group of the population has high unemployment. Hence, much of the potential
economic surplus that could have been produced by those young people is forgone. However,
these unemployed youth utilize social services and constitute a great demand for good and
services. The increasing need of unemployed lead to wide expansion of these services, which
pushed up government expenditure with a possibility of causing of some inflationary pressure.
Table 3.1 Currently unemployed populations, aged fifteen (15) years and over
The system of education has failed to prepare students for job opportunities particularly those who
had not gone for into the educational leader. The fact that a good deal of the job seekers is with
secondary school. Education implies that those people are devoid of any skills required for
employment in the civil services and modern sector. A part from this as a matter of may be
tradition, once students have joined the educational system, they never think of engaging in
agricultural and other low grade occupations.
Year
2009
2010
Sex
Male
%
Female
%
Total
Male
%
Female
%
Total
All illiterate
340
29.3
820
70.7
1160
300
319
640
68
940
All literate
5,000
58.4
10,700
41.6
25700
1600
11,000
27,00
Grade 5-8
5,240
65
2820
34.9
8060
6870
65.0
3540
34
10,410
General education (Grade 9-11
3490
63.1
2040
36.9
5530
4500
57.0
3400
43
7900
General education (Grade 12)
385
95.7
17
4.2
402
395
97.0
12
2.94
407
Out of that total unemployed population in year 2009, 12% is illiterate where as 88% is literate. In
year 2010, 16 percent is illiterate where as 84 percent is literate. From this empirical fact, there is
a decline in the literate unemployed proportion as there is an increment in the proportion of
illiterate unemployed. This could be due to the new created few job opportunities for the literate
people. In year 2009, out of the total literate unemployed. People, 65% was grade 5-8 as 63.1%
was Grade 9-11 for male.
This gets a slight decrement in the year 2010, 34% was grade 5-8, but percent male in grade 5-8
was same in year 2009 and 2010.
One important thing in the table the heart of the unemployment problem in which case there
immense number of school learners desperately remain unemployed for year. This is due to the
educational system of the country as whole and of the Grawa town in particular. And also due to
the shortage in prevailing technical and vocational schools that enable individuals to acquire skills
and influence to large extent personal attitudes to create self-employment and personal
commitment to the nations development. But, since 2010 unemployed people were cooperated
and some technical and vocational schools has been established even if it has been established,
there is great problem with its quality, even though students have graduate in technical and
vocational school with practical learning. Most of them can not apply what they had learn, due to
its lack of quality if so technical and vocational schools has been establish with good quality, they
can play great role to national development.
Figure 3.1 shows that throughout the four survey periods the unemployment rate of literate
persons is higher than illiterate persons. Furthermore, the figure illustrates that unemployment of
literate persons declined during the four surveys periods, while unemployment of illiterate persons
decline with some fluctuations.
Figure 3.1 Unemployment rate by literacy status during the four survey period, Grawa town
30% 25%
15%
10%
5%
Among the literate group, the highest rate of unemployment nearly one fourth is found for those
who did not complete secondary, secondary completed and preparatory educational level. The
unemployment rate of persons who had completed primary education, diploma certificates and
non-formal education ranges from 12 to 17 percent in march 2011. The lowest unemployment rate
is registered among those who had pre-school education and degree and above about 7.7 percent
and 6.7 percent respectively.
As it had been stated earlier in the literature review section the unemployment that the
unemployed is experiencing could be either voluntary or involuntary. It could be realized that the
most frequently used method of search for work was trying to seek work through vacancy
advertisements.
The next three important steps taken to enter in to the world of work were checking at work sites,
acquiring unemployment card and trying to establish own enterprises. From this fact it can be
conclude that most of the unemployed needs to be hire in paid employment as few attempts to
establish own business.
Marital status often plays an important role in respectively in male and female labor force
participation rates at least in the central and older ages.
Persons inadequate to work may be found more among the never married man in societies where
marriage is almost a rule; their activity rate is consequently lower than married one. On the other
hand, the labor force participation rate of the adult never married women is often lower because
their large engagement in the house and children keeping
Table 3.1.3
The above table illustrates that the unemployed individuals under the category never married,
constitutes the large share of total unemployed population that is 46.7% these who are married are
43.21% except in the never married in all the status the unemployed females out number those of
males. The never married group suffers from high rate unemployment. This is particularly true in
young age because the young unmarried people who are still in their parent there can offer long
periods of unemployment. This marital status distribution could also tell us that the head ship
responsibilities in the house hold force men and women to be active participant in the labor force
(Grawa town administration reports 2009).
In the following table, as the percentage of total unemployed persons by work experience, in year
2008, most of the unemployed population is first time job seeker.
About 55.2% of unemployed in Grawa town never had previous work experience. Out of the total
female unemployed, those with work experience and without experience are with a proportion of
61% and 39% respectively.
Of the unemployed males and females 40.6% and 28.53% respectively had no work experience.
The implication of this higher proportion of unemployed population with no work experience
could be clear that workers get limited employable skills from either formal training or their
education and it is an indicator that most the workers get marketable talents/skills from their jobs
that could be in the form of training or jobs.
Table 3.1.4 Unemployed populations by sex and work experience (Grawa town)
Sex
2008
2010
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Total
Total unemployed
1643
893
2537
1431
978
2409
Without experience
857
545
1402
641
450
1091
With experience
668
255
923
750
430
1180
Not stated
118
94
212
40
98
138
Source: Survey; 2007
In year 2010, the percentage of the unemployed without experience became 45.29%. Where as
the one with experience get increased to 48.9% as compared with the year 2008. And out of the
total female unemployed, 41% are without experience where as 43.97% are with experience and
out of total male unemployed 44.8% are without work experience as 52.42% are with experience.
Unemployment is said to occur when persons activity seeking for job could not find it. This partly
takes place when the economy fails to generate adequate and well paying job opportunities for the
labor force. It is helpful to think of unemployment in Grawa town having various types of causes.
Even if there may be overlaps and it is however, difficult to mention all of them.
Majority of them are:- educational system, growing of rural urban migration and non work status
of the societies in Agriculture.
Education when it is properly disseminated and applied in accordance with the development needs
of the country is an effective engine of development and prosperity. The educational curriculum
in Ethiopia is more theoretical not designed to link theoretical knowledge to practical real life
problem. Since technical and vocational schools were available in limited amount, generation of
formal education and training in Ethiopia has its own problem in term of both quality and quantity.
In qualitative terms too the labor force is not only badly trained but also receiving education that
fails to match the quantitative requirement of the economy.
Despite the expansion of education in Ethiopia is parallels growth of population has hindered
sufficient reduction of adult illiteracy this is estimated at 77% for female and 66% for males in
1999 gross enrollment rates are still very low even by CSA standards. The Ethiopian educational
system should little concern about of students after leaving school. The mismatch between the
qualification of students and the demands of employed has become a serious issue with the
growing unemployment school outputs (MEDaC, 1999). As the Ethiopian education system is
biased towards academic subjects, does not prepare most labor force with required skill to enable
them engage in agriculture crafts or in other sector of the economy. The problem of
unemployment of university graduates is increasing over time even if the economy is likely to
improve the job opportunities for university graduates, the problem in likely to get were due to the
long generation period that she/he face in searching for job.
On the contrary, migration today is viewed as major contributor factor to urban surplus labor
force, which continues to accelerate the already serious urban unemployment problem.
Male
Female
Total
Urban-urban
872
700
1572
%
55.47
44.5
100
Urban –rural
320
230
543
%
58.9
42.4
100
Rural –urban
1017
1300
2312
%
43.9
56.2
100
Rural –rural
565
459
2021
%
55.3
44.9
100
Total
2758
2689
5447
As the table deal with the flow of migrant between the urban and rural sector of the Grawa town in
year 2005 of the internal migration types of rural-urban migration is the main factor, which
constituted 1017 or 43.9% of the total immigrant to Grawa town. The second major form of
migrating was urban-urban form of movement reflected direct moves between Grawa and other
areas, it noted that the bulk of these migrant originally moved from the rural area, to the nearby
urban centers and stayed therefore some time and then moved to the next higher level urban area
and finally to Grawa town. The factors that influence the decision of an individual to migrate are
various and complex, may be the life quality and wage different between rural and urban area, the
expectation of people for the opportunities they will face in urban are optimize both terms of
availability of job opportunities and the income (way to be generated). What could be seen in the
case of Grawa town unemployment and don’t provide opportunities for most of the migrants.
Rural-urban migration is therefore one factor that aggravates unemployment in urban centers like
Gurawa town.
Despite the fact that production factor of Ethiopia constitutes land and largely, the attitude of the
society towards working in agricultural sector is distorted. Let along move from Grawa town to
area laborers of the agricultural sector are coming to the town leaving their engagement.
(Administration report, May, 2008) Grawa town
One of the bases that human life needs to fulfill its basic requirements is his/her access to work.
Work is also a source of knowledge and wealth, which as a result requires man to work. Those
persons that have not access to both formal and informal sector employment of the economy
engage in a bad way of life. They find themselves in absolute poverty a condition of like degraded
by disease, mal nutrition and dying the society human rights and rules.
In general unemployment has widespread social, economical and political consequences that will
be discussed later.
“Of all wills of modern society unemployment is the worst of all. It demoralizes the people who
loss respect. Life become contempt for the society complete the unemployed to retort to evil
practices like dacoit robbery pick pocketing etc…. mass unemployment may even endanger
political stability. It therefore, wiser t sacrifice out put levels to employment” (Giant, 1986).
Health, crime and social relationship of the unemployed are some among the social consequences
of un employment that will be discussed as follows.
A. Health
The relationship between ill health and unemployment is likely direct relationship. Though
unemployment is not sufficient factor to being sicked. That is to mean when an individual
becomes out of the world of work, his/her health gets disturbed. Not only the health of the
unemployed individual but also the health of community was disturbed.
Psychological well being and mental health of the unemployed point in the same direction, namely
in significant number of cases there is a relationship between the experience of unemployment and
a deterioration of mental health, more over unemployment could causes stress that also could lead
to hopelessness and self reporting of mental disorders. N. Ashton (1986) support this idea he said
that unemployed should more stress symptoms than those who had found job. Thus “as the
unemployment rate increase by certain amount the death rate are increases at least by the same
rate” (N. Ashton, 1986).
A. Crime
Juding from the increasing rate of unemployment in the Grawa town, crime and from the youth
activity in the field of investigation, there is and evidence of positive correlation between the
increasing rate of rural-town migration an rising unemployment, crime and associated delinquent
behavior such as pocket-picking, house breaking and armed robbery. Thus, higher unemployment
produces an increasing in the prison population, increasing crime and increasing juvenile
delinquency.
Year
Number of offenders
Males
Females
Total
2008
500
380
880
2009
593
402
995
2010
592
430
1015
2011
720
700
1420
2012
835
695
1530
From the above table, the number of males and females offenders continuously increased between
the stated years. This is likely related with the increased amount of youth rural-urban migration
that leads to high level of unemployment in the Grawa town. In all years, the number of males
offenders is greater than the number of females. This may due to the fact that unemployes males
tend to move around. Hence, encouraged to commit crime. As unemployed females tend to
stayed at home and care their families
Though economies can never grows without some unemployment. But, not can they grow with
too much of if prolonged unemployment generally erode human capital and finally it involves
psychic costs.
Unemployment leads to under utilization of human resources. It educated school leavers remained
unemployed, it leads to wastage of recourse invested to create human capital /educated them.
Unemployed persons consume resources their sharing of resource and products diminishes/affect
the saving capacity of the nation which is reflected by per capita income of individuals.
B. House hold poverty
In Grawa town large size of house holds are very common, mainly because of the difficulty in
finding adequate housing and immigration. The consequences are difficulty in decision making
process in the household, their might be difficulties in allowing different members of the
household either to study or pursue education or to contribute to the household needs with their
time and work and to participate in the labor market to contribute to the house hold needs with
their time and work and to participate in the labour market.
The expansion of unemployment problem could create high violence among people, threat to the
social fabric a threat that sooner or later will manifest it self as civil unrest and could lead the
unemployed to take action that can cause damage to the individual or society. (I.gnacio Rament
(1998)
Widespread of youth unemployment in Grawa town year 2008 and 2010 did contribute towards
the sets which tooks place in its.
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Conclusion
The job opportunities being created in Grawa town are not compatible with the number of job
seekers coming out from the educational system. The educational system is criticized that it is
more theoretical and the number of vocational and training schools is limited so that it could not
provide the student with employable skills. The 2005 census shows, among the residence of the
Grawa to 18.9% were migrant. This magnitude of the rural urban migration together with the
natural population increase greatly exceeded the absorptive capacity of the economy or created job
opportunities. Thus, the growth of the economy has not succeeded in absorbing new entrants into
Grawa town labor force. Whatever, the current situation, however, there is evidence that the
problem of unemployment will persist at high level in the Grawa town. The structural
composition of unemployed shows the vulnerability of different classes of people to
unemployment. Regarding the age and sex criteria, most of the unemployed of Grawa town are
younger generations. Recent migrants are more exposed to unemployment than individual who
have resided in Grawa town for relatively long periods. Moreover, the composition of
unemployed on marital status criteria show that larger portion of unemployed in single (never
married) youth most of whom could be living with their parents.
The unemployment problem has many consequences that are harmful for unemployed, his family,
his neighbor, and relatives. Socially, the unemployed could be ignored by the societies, his
psychology could be affected, his mental and for the society as whole, crime could be expanded in
the Grawa town and could endanger political stability if its is massive which all these could put
the town in to automatic disorder.
4.2 Recommendation
Unemployment in Ethiopia particularly in Grawa town has reached a crisis level and is becoming
more frustrating even to the security and stability of the government and society as whole. Since,
urban and rural unemployment is a reflection of the poor performance of the Ethiopian economy,
special initiatives targeted at employment to bring about fundamental positive changes should be
undertaken.
As Ethiopia being predominantly an agricultural rations, must be improve the development of its
agricultural sector to make the rural people and there by improve the industrial and service sectors.
This is so because modernization of agricultural and rural transformation through integrated
development programs that can open new employment opportunities for labor force .
In developing countries like Ethiopia, where the development of industrial sector is limited, the
potential of the informal sector should be properly developed and utilized so that it could
supplement the informal sector of the economy in the creation of jobs and training opportunities
for urban unemployed. This can be done by adopting appropriate measures such as introducing
business development services, appropriate skill training, technology and improved access to
credit by unemployed to undertake various income generating activities and self help programs.
4.2.3 Improving the educational system
The disparity between the demand and supply of skills of unemployed labore force implies there is
great need for providing support to the revision of the content and quality of the educational and
training system and it is reorientation in the direction of improving or acquiring employable skills,
inorder to meet the development of employment creation activities with in the different sectors of
the economy, the government of Ethiopia should develop and mobilize its human resources
through the improvements of its educational and training system. More important practical
educational and skill development will enable the individual to obtain employable skills.
Retraining programs are important for the unemployed to develop a sense of confidence and be
able to complete in the labor market. The causes would have the advantage of withholding some
of the unemployed from labor market for limited period then of re-training them equipped with a
skill that could increase both employment and job creation obviously, the skills to be given to
those persons would be given atten that they should be compatible with resources availability of
the nations.
Such organizations should take appropriate measures interms of research conducting, policy and
plan formulation and implementation-coordination of the organizations and individuals highly
needed to increase peoples awareness to unemployment and other economic issues inorder to
influence individuals to create job by themselves.
The organizations are also required to mobilize the available resources efficiently, design and
implementation compressive programs in line with the economic policies of the country for
addressing the unemployment problem in Ethiopia. This encourages enhancement of domestic
and foreign investment, development of cooperative credit and other self-helf programs and in
general involvement of the local community in accelerating economic progress in general and
employment generation in particular.
Realization of all the above propositions needs moral, mental and argent concern of every men
and women. This would be effective by developing dynamic leadership, perfect integrity and
effective system of communication, strong confidence and placing the right person for the right
job at the right time.
Reference
- Alemayehu G and Berhanu N, (1994), The Ethiopian economy performance and evaluation
A.A
- CSA (2005), report on urban-bi annual employment and unemployment survey A.A.
- Godfrey, M. (1986), Global unemployment: The new challenge to economic Theory, St.
Martin press, New York.
- Ishumi, A.G. M (1984), the urban jobless in East Africa, A study of the Unemployed
population in Growing urban centers with special reference to Tanzania, (Scandivian institute of
Africa studies, Sweden).
- Smiths, S.W. (1991), Labor economics, T.J.I Digital, padstow, com wall, USA.
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