Namibia: Labor Markets and Resource Dependence

Selected Issues Papers, July 11, 2025

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Namibia: Labor Markets and Resource Dependence

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Bibliographic details

• Authors: Sanghamitra Warrier Mukherjee
• Published: July 11, 2025
• Series: Selected Issues Papers
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229017596.018

Key findings

• With high unemployment, especially among the youth, Namibia lags behind the SSA region on labor market outcomes.
• Between 2012 and 2018, there was a structural shift in the economy from agriculture to services, as younger workers took up low-productivity service sector jobs.
• A shift-share analysis highlights that resources are not allocated to relatively more productive firms in the services sector, consistent with the weak real GDP per capita growth.
• The ongoing oil and gas exploration (and potential production in the future) offers an opportunity for economic growth and job creation, but also presents risks of worsened labor market outcomes.

Analytical focus

• Structural transformation: timing and direction of the sectoral shift (2012–2018) from agriculture to services and its labor-market implications.
• Firm-level allocative efficiency: shift-share analysis evidencing misallocation of resources away from relatively more productive service firms.
• Resource dependence risks: evaluation of oil and gas exploration as both an opportunity for growth and job creation and a source of potential negative labor market outcomes.

Subjects and keywords

• Subject: Employment, Labor, Labor force, Labor markets, Unemployment
• Keywords: Agriculture, Employment, employment opportunity, gas exploration, Job Creation, Labor force, Labor Market, Labor markets, Local Content Policies, Oil and Gas Explorations, Productivity, resource dependence, service sector job, Services, Skill Gaps, Skills Mismatch, Structural Transformation, Sub-Saharan Africa, Unemployment, worsened labor market outcome

Sanghamitra Warrier Mukherjee, July 11, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229017596.018

Content in this bundle

• Namibia: Labor Markets and Resource Dependence; IMF Selected Issues Paper No. 2025/092; May 28, 2025
  • Namibia: Labor Markets and Resource Dependence; IMF Selected Issues Paper No. 2025/092; May 28, 2025 (Markdown version)
  • Namibia: Labor Markets and Resource Dependence; IMF Selected Issues Paper No. 2025/092; May 28, 2025 (PDF)