Unemployment is not a joke
By Victor Angula |
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has just this week released some figures, which are said to be showing and indicating the rate of unemployment in Namibia.
NSA says that Namibia’s unemployment rate stands at 36.9%, although some economists are said to be disagreeing with this figure, saying that unemployment is much higher than this.
They are accusing NSA of fiddling with the figures. They say that the country’s unemployment rate should be more than 50%.
Whether they are right or it is the NSA who is right, what is clear is the fact that the country’s institutions and leaders are looking at unemployment as a joke.
Politicians, economists, and business leaders are treating the issue of unemployment as something that is of no significance; like it is just something.
NSA’s responsibility of releasing some statistics here and there, apparently that is enough. Whether the figures are high or low, it is of no importance for them.
Nobody has the responsibility of doing anything to fight unemployment. Everybody is busy doing other things.
It is sad. It is sad that the NSA says that youth unemployment is definitely above 50%. But nobody else says anything, let alone do anything. In fact, everyone is just continuing to do the opposite, to do what fuels unemployment.
Unemployment is cause by an economy that is not diversifying, an economy which continues to perpetuate income inequalities.
Even as it is said that Namibia’s unemployment rate is highest in SADC, perhaps in the whole of Africa, such countries with the highest unemployment rates also happen to be the same countries with the highest income disparities.
In these countries, those who are rich continue to become richer while the poor become more poorer by the day.
This situation is not a joke but something which is worrisome. Certainly, it shouldn’t be a joke.
– Victor Angula is the editor of Omutumwa News Online.
