ENEC 2024: Unemployment decreases, but employment remains dominated by the informal sector in Gabon
According to the national survey on employment and unemployment, the unemployment curve has begun to bend.
T he official ceremony for the presentation of the results of the National Survey on Employment and Unemployment (ENEC 2024), held in Libreville on April 29, 2026, confirms a relative improvement in the Gabonese labor market, without dispelling the structural weaknesses that affect professional integration, especially among young people and women.
According to the published data, the national unemployment rate stands at 17.4%, compared to 20.4% in 2010, but this decrease hides significant social and territorial disparities.
The survey records 109,733 unemployed people and highlights a particularly worrying situation for 15-24-year-olds, whose unemployment rate reaches 34.5%, as well as for women, affected at a rate of 21.4%. It also reveals that 86.5% of jobs are in the informal sector, which limits access to social protection and confirms the low formalization of the economy.
With a labor force participation rate of 49.5% and an employment rate of 40%, the study shows that a large portion of the working-age population remains on the sidelines of the labor market. Reading the results Beyond the decline in overall unemployment, the ENEC 2024 highlights an exclusive labor market, where a diploma does not automatically guarantee better access to employment and where opportunities remain concentrated in the informal sector.
Urban unemployment, estimated at 19%, remains much higher than that of rural areas, set at 5.8%, reflecting the saturation of cities given the limited absorption capacity of the formal sector. The average duration of unemployment, estimated at five years, finally shows that integration remains slow and often persistently blocked, especially for people without qualifications. For the government, these results should serve as a basis for reforms targeted at vocational training, entrepreneurship, access to financing, and the gradual formalization of informal activities.
Political issue The ENEC 2024 thus provides a decision-making tool to guide public employment policies. Its main lesson is clear: Gabon is improving certain indicators, but the creation of decent, stable, and formal jobs remains the central challenge.
