500 000 people formally employed in Zim says Chinamasa, 5.8 million working in SMEs

Speaking in Parliament during the hearing of the Movable Property Interests Bill in the National Assembly, Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa said there are currently 500 000 formally employed Zimbabweans with the number having fallen from 2 million in 2000.

Said Chinamasa:

The period we are going through in terms of the development of our economy is a transitional period. Formal businesses collapsed.  I want to say that in 2000, there were two million people in formal employment. Over the years, because of the challenges that we have faced, we now have only half a million.  This means the rest of the people are now in the informal sector. According to the 2012 FINSCOPE survey, 5.8 million people are employed in the informal sector and there are 3.8 million businesses employing those 5.8 million people.  So, it is very important for us to understand and situate ourselves as to where we are.

State media in October 2016 reported that the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe had stabilised at 11 and 12 percent with the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (ZimStat) stating that 5,1 million people were economically active out of the 7,7 million of working age.