A new report released by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) has indicated that unemployment in the country increased almost two-fold within a period of three months between February and May 2020.

According to the report, the unemployment rate stood at 13.1 in February before the first Covid-19 case was registered in Rwanda and by May, it had skyrocketed to 22.1 percent.

The increase of unemployment rate registered in May 2020 is attributed to the effect of Covid-19 on labour market.

The Labour Force Survey Trends report is released on quarterly basis since 2019.

The aim for this year's survey is to show the loss of employment due to Covid-19, monitor current employment and unemployment trends among working age population, and provide data to the government supporting an evidence-based response to the crisis.

This year’s Quarter 2 survey emphasized on the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on Rwandan labour market.

Although the institute’s strategy to collect data was interfered by the lockdown, it managed to survey a sample of 3,484 households of which 97 percent responded.

The analysis of employment trends shows a decrease of employed population from February to May 2020.

It was 3,569,000 in February and decreased to 3,411,000 in March and kept decreasing to 2,117,416 in April during the total lockdown before increasing to 3,199,000 in May after reopening of most of activities.

The employment to-population ratio (EPR) decreased from 48.3 percent in February 2020 to 43.0 in May 2020.

When the total lockdown was imposed late March, the survey found that it was when unemployment rates skyrocketed.

There was an employment decrease of 40.6 percent in April as compared to February 2020.

This implies that the Covid-19 lockdown widened the unemployment gap in its first month. However, the report mentions that after the lockdown was lifted early May, numbers were different.

"The rise in unemployment and the stability in the number of person outside labour force indicates that after the full lockdown of April, people who were not employed were very active on labour market, either working or looking for employment,” the report reads in part.

The employment-to-population ratio decreased by 5.3 percentage from February 2020 (48.3 percent) to May 2020 (43 percent) indicating a decline in number of employment from February to May 2020.

Highest number of population involved in agriculture since 2018

The survey observed that the rate of participation in agriculture and foodstuff production increased from 23.8 percent in February to 28.7 percent in May.

The recorded rate of participation in subsistence agriculture is the highest since February 2018.

The report attributes the rise to the lack of other occupations, especially secondary school students living in rural areas whose studies were halted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), Labour Force Survey, May 2020

The survey also found that unemployment rates are high in rural areas than urban, in women than men and in young people below 31 years of age.

The report also surveyed the most impacted areas by the Covid-19 pandemic. Accommodation and food service activities (-67,080), Transportation and storage (-35,075), Manufacturing (-30,456), Activities of households as employers (-29,982) of Education (-25,413), Mining and quarrying (-24,772) among others

The distribution of the employed population by sector of employment in February 2020 and May 2020 reveals that the majority of employed persons were in private sector (89.1 percent) in February 2020 and 89.9 in May 2020 followed by Public sector with 5.7 percent.

The proportion of employed persons by household decreased from 5.1 percent in February 2020 to 3.5 percent in May 2020.