Rwandans today join the rest of the world to mark the International Labour Day, but as the country celebrates, concerns over employment status continue to come up.

Among the key concerns is the state of underemployment in the country, which the Minister of Labour and Public Service, Judith Uwizeye, believes needs urgent attention.

According to the minister, one-third of the employable citizens work for lesser hours within a week, which she attributed to underemployment.

Underemployment refers to an employment situation that is insufficient in some important way for the worker, relative to a standard, mainly the level of education or experience.

Examples include holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, and over qualification, where the employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the requirements of the job.

"This is a big problem that we can partly address by scaling up sensitisation to ensure that people are employed fittingly and ensure those in employment use their expertise to maximise production,” Uwizeye, who was addressing a news conference earlier this week, said.

Cases of underemployment are common where employees are overqualified for the jobs they have. They are common in the private sector and, according to Africain Biraboneye, the executive secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions in Rwanda (CESTRAR), overqualified staff are more likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviours.

"In a country that is on the path to becoming a knowledge-based economy, we should not just look at defusing unemployment, we need to as well ensure we have a productive labour market; we can only do that by addressing the cases of underemployment,” said Biraboneye.

Unemployment drudgery

However, he pointed out that there is a linkage between underemployment and unemployment, saying that when people are unemployed, they tend to settle for any job that pays them any amount for survival.

"As long as someone is doing a job for survival and not because they love what they do, their level of productivity will always be low,” said Biraboneye.

The Fourth Rwanda Population and Housing Census (RPHC4), conducted in 2012, puts unemployment rate in Rwanda at 3.4 per cent, with the majority affected being youth aged between 16 and 35.

The unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 7.7 per cent.

The breakdown of the unemployment rate by the highest level of education showed that young persons with secondary and university levels of education are most exposed to unemployment.

Thirteen per cent of active persons with an upper secondary education level were unemployed and the unemployment rate was 10 per cent for those who had attended university.

The figures partly contribute to the underemployment in the country and according to Biraboneye, government should come up with ‘a job qualification regulation system’ that is cross-cutting to both private and public sector.

"With such a system, we would ensure that people do jobs that fit their qualifications and we would be assured of good service delivery,” he said.

Skills gap

Speaking to The New Times, the Director of Advocacy at the Private Sector Federation (PSF), Antoine Manzi, said all issues in the labour market are pegged on school curriculum.

"There are instances where you find 500 people graduating in a similar course, let’s say management, which results in unemployment and in the end, you find someone with a masters degree working as a receptionist,” Manzi said.

He said manufacturers have persistently complained that they spend a lot on hiring foreigners to do the work that locals should be doing.

This will, however, soon be addressed, following the introduction of a new curriculum, last week, which, according to Rwanda Education Board, is competent-based and will go a long way in sharpening students’ skills right from pre-primary school.

With regards to May Day celebrations, Manzi said the private sector is encouraging both employers and employees to use the day in engaging in an open social dialogue to ensure all problems that come are swiftly addressed.

Meanwhile, Minister Uwizeye said the labour market has registered tremendous progress in the past years mainly due to the various enablers put in place by government to stimulate job creation.

"We have as well invested much in skills development and our target to create 200,000 jobs annually is on course but this programme is centered at private sector involvement,” Uwizeye said.

In 2012, jobs created annually stood at 104,000 and, according to the minister, the investments in skills and infrastructure development will pave way for the 200,000 jobs annually.

The workers’ union also believes that the creation of 200,000 jobs annually is practical and possible but needs a monitoring system.

"We need to look beyond just having people employed; these jobs should be the kind that impact employees’ welfare. The government should establish a monitoring mechanism to see how impactful these jobs are to people who get them,” said Biraboneye.

For the celebrations of Labour Day today, employers have been advised to celebrate the day at respective workstations, according to the ministry.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw