The number of employed people increased in 2025, with the employment-to-population ratio rising to 55.9 per cent from 53.5 per cent in 2024, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).

Out of an estimated working-age population of 8.5 million people, about 4.8 million are employed, according to the Labour Force Survey annual report. The total labour force, including both the employed and 676,000 people actively seeking work, stands at 5.4 million. Around 3.1 million people are outside the labour force.

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Employment increased for both men and women. The employment-to-population ratio for men rose by 1.4 percentage points to 63.6 per cent, while for women it increased by 3.1 percentage points to 49 per cent.

The services sector remains the main source of jobs, employing 44.4 per cent of the workforce in 2025, up from 42.9 per cent in 2024. Employment in agriculture and industry remained largely unchanged.

The unemployment rate fell to 12.4 per cent, down by 2.5 percentage points from the previous year, meaning about one in eight people in the labour force is unemployed.

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Unemployment is higher among women at 14.2 per cent compared to 10.8 per cent for men, and is more pronounced among youth (14.7 per cent) than in older categories (10.8 per cent). Rates are almost the same in rural and urban areas, at around 12 per cent.

However, broader labour underutilisation, which includes underemployment and people available for work but not actively seeking it, increased by 1.8 percentage points to 56 per cent in 2025. It remains higher among women (63.1 per cent) than men (48.5 per cent), and slightly higher among youth (56.7 per cent) than adults (55.5 per cent).

Men still participate in the labour force at higher rates than women, although the gap narrowed slightly to 14.3 percentage points in 2025, down from the previous year.