Wage Employment in Africa

Abstract Most economists think there is little wage employment in Africa and doubt the potential for faster growth of paid employment. They favour supply-side measures encouraging self-employment. The statistical base of conventional views is extremely unreliable. Even the poor statistics that are available do not support pessimism about wage employment in African countries, which has been expanding (and as a share of total employment). Huge numbers of wage workers, including women in domestic service, agricultural child workers, and, often, factory workers, are also invisible in the data. There is no reason for pessimistic predictions about slow fertility rate decline in Africa. There are realistic policies to encourage a faster rate of growth of wage opportunities, for example, to increase demand for young and female rural workers. Also, employment protection legislation (EPL) is not a brake on investment, productivity increases, and growth; excessive labour market ‘flexibility’ subsidizes inefficient enterprises.