• Government efforts in growing the private sector should be the best indicator of performance.
• Government alone cannot absorb all the unemployed people in the country.
• Foreign Direct Investment will continue to be one of the key sources of jobs.

Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has called on government to create a conducive and enabling business environment for private sector growth.
Centre Executive Director Father Alex Muyebe told Money FM News that government efforts in growing the private sector should be the best indicator of performance since private sector is the largest employer.
Father Muyebe noted that in 2021, government accounted for 13.1% of the employment in the country while 85% of the jobs were from the private sector.
He said the country needs a very robust agriculture sector which remains very critical potential for economic growth, job creation and development because Government alone cannot absorb all the unemployed people in the country.
“In the early 2000s, the agriculture sector contributed over 20 percent of GDP and created over 72 percent jobs in the country. In 2021, agriculture sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 2.96 percent1 and created less than 48 percent of jobs in the country. Empowerment programs under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Citizens Economic Empowerment Program should be evaluated for purposes of making them more effective in generating the much-needed jobs.”
“Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will continue to be one of the key sources of jobs. Investment promotion should therefore be strengthened and incentives could be provided to labor intensive FDIs,” Mr. Muyebe stated.
He added that the 100,000 applications during the health worker recruitment in 2022 and the 200,000 applications during the Ministry of Defense recruitment are a reflection of the enormity of the unemployment problem in Zambia.
“In 2022, the Ministry of Health recruited in 30,000 teachers, the Ministry of Health recruited 11, 276 health workers whereas the Ministry of Defense recruited 5, 000 personnel. Other departments such as Police and ZAWA also advertised for recruitment of several officers, but the number have not yet been made public. One thing to note is that the recruitment of teachers and health workers were the largest in recent history.”
“However, compared to the enormity of the unemployment problem, government recruitments are a drop in the ocean. In 2021, a total of 450,759 employable people were without jobs. Majority of them (352, 874) were youths,” he noted.