The new figures were released on July 28 in the latest Labour Force Survey. The report shows that both men and women benefited from the rise in employment. Employment among men and women respectively stood at 61.7% and 46.8%.
Young people between the ages of 16 and 30 had a job rate of 49.1%, which is lower than the 57.4% seen among adults aged 31 and above.
The report shows that most people are now working in the services sector. Meanwhile, the number of people working in agriculture went down to 38.0% in May 2025, compared to 39.3% in the same period last year.
Jobs in the industry sector also dropped slightly, while employment in services increased from 44.0% to 45.6% over the same time.
In total, Rwanda's working-age population (people aged 16 and above) is now around 8.5 million. Out of that, 4.5 million people are working, about 710,000 are unemployed, and 3.2 million are not part of the labour force, meaning they are not working and not looking for work either.
Unemployment also went down. The rate of people without jobs dropped to 13.4%, a big improvement from last year's 16.8%, and even better than the 15.0% recorded before COVID-19 in 2019. However, women are still more affected, with an unemployment rate of 15.3%, compared to 11.8% for men.
Young people also face more challenges, with 15.4% of them unemployed, compared to 12.1% among adults.
IGIHE
Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/rwanda-s-employment-rate-rises-to-53-8
