Sub-Saharan Africa added 15.4 million people to its labour force between 2024/2025 and created 14.6 million jobs, yet households of nearly six in ten workers still live in poverty
This is according to the International Labour Organization 2026 Employment and Social Trends report.
The report highlights the persistent gap between job creation and poverty reduction, emphasizing that labour market growth in the region has not translated into widespread access to productive or secure employment.
What the report said
The ILO report highlights that sub-saharan Africa’s workforce is overwhelmingly informal. The workforce currently has nearly nine in ten workers in informal employment.
This includes jobs in agriculture, street trading, domestic work, and small-scale businesses that do not provide social protection, and often pay low and unstable wages.
As a result of this heavy reliance on informal work, close to six in ten workers belong to households living below the moderate poverty threshold of less than US$4.20 a day in purchasing power parity terms.
The report explains that the lack of formal job creation in urban areas, combined with high levels of agricultural employment, reinforces this cycle.
It notes that even as the labour force grows by 15.4 million, the formal sector is insufficient to absorb the workers.
The report highlighted the need to create productive employment and decent jobs for new labour market entrants
“Sustained population growth in sub-Saharan Africa underscores the urgent need to create productive employment and decent jobs for new labour market entrants,” the ILO said.
More insights from the report
The report identifies education and skills gaps as key contributors to poor labour market outcomes, especially among youth.
“21 of African youth aged 15 to 29 have never attended school or have completed only pre-primary education, while only 46% have completed primary or lower secondary education as their highest level of educational attainment,” the report stated
Limited participation in technical and vocational education and training also compounds the problem.
“Only 6.5 per cent of youth aged 15 to 29 have completed a technical and vocational education and training programme,” the report stated.
These gaps limit access to productive employment and deepen youth unemployment. The ILO stresses the need to improve access to skills-based education and work-based learning, such as apprenticeships and internships, which are critical for helping young people secure decent work and addressing persistent skills mismatches in the labour market.
Global context
The ILO report highlights that improvements in the quality of employment have slowed globally over the past two decades.
“Between 2015 and 2025, the share of workers living in extreme poverty declined by only 3.1 percentage points, to 7.9%, compared with a decline of 15 percentage points in the previous decade leaving 284 million workers living on less than US$3.00 a day,” the report stated
Both extreme and moderate working poverty rates increased in low-income countries during the same period, with almost 68% of workers living in extreme or moderate poverty in 2025.
Informal employment is on the rise globally. By 2026, 2.1 billion workers globally are projected to be informally employed. The ILO notes that the slowdown in the transformation of economies towards sectors with more productive workers and better working conditions acts as a major roadblock in ensuring steady progress in narrowing decent work deficits.
What you should know
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has begun implementing education and labour market reforms in response to these challenges.
In early 2025, the Federal Government updated the basic education curriculum to include 15 new trade subjects designed to give students practical skills that align with industry needs and improve their employability. This effort intends to ensure learners graduate with skills they can use directly in the workforce or to start their own ventures.
At the same time, the Federal Ministry of Education rolled out a nationwide Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme and accreditation of vocational centres to equip Nigerians with market relevant skills.
To support trainees, the government also built financial incentives into the TVET system
Beyond basic and vocational education, the federal government has financed large‑scale youth skills training initiatives.
