adminPsychological Consultants (Pvt) Ltd found that the manufacturing sector is the largest employer of Zimbabwe’s graduates, a point that may be further justified by the fact that the sector has boosted productive capacity from around 32 percent in 2009 to 57,2 percent this year.
IPC managing consultant Mr Memory Nguwi said of the population sampled the findings show that “15,6 percent were employed in the manufacturing industry, constituting the highest industry”.
This is followed by 8,6 percent who are in the quasi-government sector.
The mining industry employs about 7,8 percent of the employed graduate population in the country, while the civil service is constituted by 7 percent of the employed graduate population.
The study showed that the financial services sector also employs 7 percent of the employed population while the insurance industry constitutes 6 percent.
A total of 4,7 percent are employed in the information communication technology industry.
According to the survey, the professional services/consulting industry also seems to be employing quite a significant number of the employed population, taking 4,6 percent.
The telecommunications and the media industry employ 2,3 percent, while 1,6 percent are employed in the hospitality industry.
The dominance of the manufacturing sector is perhaps reflective of the limited employment opportunities in the country, especially insofar as manufacturing is largely constituted by blue-collar jobs, while graduates typically go for white-collar employment.
White-collar employment generally refers to semi-professional office, administrative and sales co-ordination tasks. On the other hand, blue-collar work is manual labour that may involve skilled or unskilled work.
Although the manufacturing sector in most economies typically drives employment growth, the situation in Zimbabwe indicates that its graduates may simply be settling for less.
In a normal situation, other sectors such as financial services, professional services and insurance, for example, should take up the largest portion of graduates.
Or it could be that the local manufacturing sector might be taking up graduates with science and technical skills.
Global Workforce Solutions (Pvt) Ltd principal consultant Mr Anthony Jongwe contends that although employment levels are generally low, there is still high demand for scientific and technical skills.
“A developing country like Zimbabwe can never have too many engineers, medical doctors, artisans,
veterinary surgeons or information communication technologists and so it is important that universities and tertiary institutions focus more on these,” he said.
There has been some modicum of stability in terms of the country’s macro-economic fundamentals, as indicated by the low inflation and Gross Domestic Product growth since the adoption of the multi-currencies in 2009, however this growth and stability has not translated to meaningful job creation, as Mr Nguwi outlines:
“The situation in Zimbabwe has inarguably become better since dollarisation and the economy seems to be improving.
“However, economic growth doesn’t necessarily guarantee increase in employment rate in a nation as proved by global statistics.”
The problem is, however, not peculiar to Zimbabwe.
For instance, the 2011 Economic Report on Africa has predicted a steady growth of African economies of approximately 5 percent, which will, however, not be accompanied by a corresponding improvement in the continent’s employment rate.
Nevertheless, the IPC study seems to confirm that the local manufacturing sector is the most efficient in terms of the human resources element.
An earlier analysis of companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange by the IPC showed that the manufacturing sector in 2010 had an HC ROI value of US$2,58 against an overall local industry average of
US$1,76, reflecting the most efficient workforce structure in the country across all sectors.
The Human Capital Return on Investment (HC ROI) is an added-value metric which is used to measure workforce structure efficiency.
Low HC ROI value usually indicates that the organisation’s workforce structure is inefficient. It is important to note that the HC ROI is not necessarily indicative of productivity but reflects human resources structure efficiencies (or lack thereof) within the context of organisational and macro-economic variables.
The same report showed that the manufacturing sector had a positive staff-costs-to-revenue ratio at 27 percent, which compared favourably with the then international level which stood at 26 percent in the period
under review.
In addition, the study revealed that last year the manufacturing sector has the highest people profit ration in the country across sectors at US$1,86, in comparison to US$1,39 for all industries.
Meanwhile, the IPC survey on Zimbabwe’s graduates shows that employed graduates were mostly male at 66 percent, while 34 percent were female.
This shows that there are about twice as much employed male graduates than there are female graduates, which is very disproportionate with the country’s population status in which women outnumber men.
Online Reporter