Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – The latest Labour Force Survey by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) shows that The Gambia created more than 56,000 additional jobs between 2022-23 and 2025, as employment rose from 563,395 to 619,620 people, a development likely to become central to political debate ahead of the country’s next elections.
The 2025 Gambia Labour Force Survey (GLFS 2025), conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Regional Integration, and Employment, paints a mixed picture of the country’s labor market, highlighting notable gains in labor force participation and employment growth while exposing persistent structural weaknesses in youth unemployment, informality, and rural underemployment.
According to the report’s executive summary, the country’s labor force expanded by 10.8 percent, growing from 609,410 people in 2022-23 to 675,470 in 2025. The labor force participation rate also increased from 43.6 percent to 47.1 percent, while the employment-to-population ratio improved from 40.3 percent to 43.2 percent.
However, despite the increase in jobs, unemployment also edged upward, underscoring the pressure being created by a growing working-age population and increasing labor market participation.
The unemployment rate rose from 7.6 percent to 8.3 percent nationally, while youth unemployment increased from 10.5 percent to 11.5 percent. Women continued to face greater difficulty accessing jobs, with female unemployment standing at 9.2 percent compared to 7.5 percent among men.
The Services Sector Drives Employment Growth
Politically, the findings are expected to sharpen scrutiny of the government’s economic record, particularly as employment opportunities for young people are likely to dominate campaign messaging in the run-up to elections.
Although the survey confirms an increase in employment, it also shows that much of the labor market remains informal and vulnerable. Informal employment rose from 79.4 percent to 81 percent overall, with women disproportionately affected at 86.3 percent compared to 76.7 percent for men.
The report describes informality as remaining “dominant across the labor market,” suggesting that many of the new jobs created are outside secure or regulated employment structures.
The private sector remained the country’s main employer, accounting for 88.8 percent of all jobs in 2025, while public sector employment increased modestly from 8.9 percent to 9.8 percent.
Sectorally, services emerged as the strongest source of employment growth, rising from 57.5 percent to 61.7 percent of total employment.
Agriculture’s share of employment declined sharply from 21 percent to 17.6 percent, while industry remained relatively stable at around 21 percent.
The findings point to a continuing shift away from agriculture toward service-sector activity, particularly in urban areas, even as rural underemployment remains severe.
Youth Employment Challenges Persist
The survey found that labor underutilization, which includes unemployed persons and discouraged jobseekers, declined nationally from 31.6 percent to 26.7 percent.
Yet the burden remained significantly heavier in rural areas, where underutilization stood at 33.8 percent compared to 21.7 percent in urban areas. Women also experienced much higher underutilization levels at 34.3 percent, compared to 19.1 percent for men.
Particularly striking was the condition of people engaged in subsistence agriculture, where labor underutilization reached 60 percent, more than double the rate for other workers.
For young Gambians, the survey offered both optimism and warning signs.
The proportion of youth not in education, employment, or training (NEET) declined from 45.3 percent to 41.3 percent among those aged 15 to 35, while the internationally tracked NEET indicator for those aged 15 to 24 also improved from 42.6 percent to 38.3 percent.
But the report noted continuing inequalities, with young women and youth with disabilities facing significantly worse outcomes. NEET rates among youth with disabilities stood at 52.2 percent.
Foreign Workers Outperform Citizens in the Labor Market
Another politically sensitive finding was the report’s indication that foreign-born individuals and foreign citizens consistently recorded stronger labor market outcomes than Gambian citizens.
Foreign-born individuals had a labor force participation rate of 65.8 percent in 2025, compared to 45.7 percent for native-born Gambians. Employment-to-population ratios were also considerably higher among foreign citizens.
The report additionally highlighted growing urban concentration and migration pressures, with Brikama identified as the country’s primary migration destination, attracting 61.6 percent of migrants.
The GLFS 2025 was based on interviews conducted across 7,063 households and 31,757 individuals nationwide between February and April 2025. The survey achieved a household response rate of 96.3 percent and an individual response rate of 92.1 percent.
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