Unemployment is one of the most serious social problems Uganda is facing at the moment. It is mostly among the youth who have graduated from institutions of higher learning. Some people who have taken over twenty years without jobs.

Unemployment has bad effects on the society ranging from boredom, redundancy, being idle and disorderly as well as high level of crimes.

However, it also becomes very complicated to clearly understand the concept of employment.

So what is employment then?

Unemployment is a situation where peopled are willing and able to work but fail to get jobs.

It is simply the idleness of a factor of production and in developing countries it is mostly labour.

There are different types of unemployment such as voluntary unemployment where people decide to remain jobless.

Casual unemployment is where people have a job for a short time eg offloading a lorryful of sand for some days while unemployed on some occasions.

Residual unemployment is where one is unable to work due to mental or physical disability.

Causes of unemployment

In Uganda, unemployment is caused by various economic, social and political factors.

Poverty - some people are too poor to afford school education which in most cases, is a basis for job qualification.

Widespread sectarianism for example jobs being offered on tribal basis, favouring certain individuals while others are not favoured.

International forces for example IMF advising governments of poor countries to reduce the number of civil servants.

Existence of relatively large subsistence sector with low employment opportunities.

It is also caused by rural-urban migration where there is an influx of rural inhabitants towards towns to look for jobs, which are not there.

Improvement in technology has led to the use of machines for example computers, which have led to the laying off or retrenchment of human labour.

Seasonal factors in some productive sectors for example agriculture, fishing, building, etc.  In some seasons for example dry season (drought), less people are employed in agriculture.

Structural unemployment where some people become jobless due to changes in productive economic structure for example in industry.

The Education system in Uganda trains job seekers not job makers.

There is a problem of school dropouts at all educational levels who flock to towns looking for white collar jobs which do not exist.

The rapid population increase is not proportionate to the development of the available economic resources.

There is under-utilization of economic resources due to lack of capital i.e low level of resource exploitation.

There is frictional unemployment where some people leave jobs because of various reasons for example grievances and social problems.

Natural disabilities for example physical and mental handicap, age, etc causing residual unemployment.

Employment of expatriate staff on a large scale in all sectors has been another cause of unemployment in Uganda.

Political instability has continuously paralyzed the economic development leading to unemployment.

Many Ugandans are not economically employed because of lack of education and skills. 

There is voluntary unemployment where some people wish to be unemployed.

The immobility of labour both occupationally and geographically. This is due to the bad infrastructure in terms of transport and communication.

The bad land tenure system where by some people are dangerously rich, owning large chunks of land while others have nothing. The landless remain unemployed.

Reliance on the export of agricultural raw materials that do not fetch much on the world market.

Lack of proper manpower planning

Exhaustion of some natural resources in some parts of the country for example copper at Kilembe, timber and fish leave some people properly unemployed.

Suggestions to government to solve unemployment

Establish small industries, spread all over the countryside, to create jobs.

Advertise jobs; provide transport, accommodation, etc to encourage mobility of labour.

Government should protect domestic industries against foreign producers so as to maintain employment levels at home.

There is need to increase the number of enterprises either through foreign assistance or investment by the public sector to generate employment opportunities.

Encourage mechanization within the agricultural sector to enable large-scale farming and create jobs.

Government can formulate appropriate education policies aimed at creating job makers rather than job seekers.

It should encourage education for self-reliance at all levels in order to change the attitude of Ugandans from the colonial mentality of "white collar" jobs for educated people.

Government should formulate appropriate economic policies to discourage rural-urban migration for example by creating and improving social amenities in rural areas.

It should carry out equal geographical location of industries in order to distribute job opportunities all over the country.

It should resort to utilization of local personnel as much as possible.

Diversification of agriculture to include more crops to those already known as "cash crops".

Improving working conditions for workers in Uganda for example giving them higher salaries, good housing facilities and medical allowance.

Government should control population growth through encouragement of family planning and health education.

Government should embark on maximum utilization of local resources, which will result in self-reliance.

It should encourage its citizens to get involved in productive activities other than waiting for aid.

Government should choose appropriate technology for the country to absorb available manpower.

Government can create more homes for the disabled so as to help them become productive.

It should stabilize the country politically by encouraging democracy and involvement of all Ugandans in the political process.

It should diversify the economy by encouraging agriculture and industry as well as public and private sectors to operate hand in hand.

Government should create tertiary and technical institutions at all levels to alleviate the dropout problems.  These will absorb and train possible dropouts.

Government should adopt the "go back to the land" policy or politicize people not to be redundant.

Why it is difficult to attain full employment in Uganda

The growing population in Uganda means that at any given point in time, some people will be unmployed. Jobs do not usually grow at the same rate with Uganda's population growth.

Changing technology has the effect of reducing the number of people required for employment in specific fields therefore as technology changes, labour requirements also change making it difficult to attain full employment.

Lack if information. Some people may stay unemployed while employment opportunities exist because they lack information about existing job opportunities.

Laziness and negative attitude towards work.  Achieving full employment in an economy becomes difficult as long as some people are lazy, have negative attitudes towards work and therefore choose not to work even when jobs are available ie voluntary unemployment.

In an economy, some level of unemployment (transitional unemployment) must occur since people keep on transferring from one job to another and from one region to another.

The dynamic (changing) macro - economic environment.  This causes fluctuations on economic activity making it difficult to attain and sustain full employment in the economy.

The existence of speculation in the labour market.  Some people voluntarily stay unemployed refusing low wage paying  jobs expecting to get those which pay higher wages in the near future.

Difficulties on Manpower planning and development:  It is difficult for any economy to carry out manpower planning  program which accurately matches  the supply with the demand for specific manpower.

Geographical and occupational immobility of labours.  Obstacles to labour mobility make it difficult   to attain full employment in the economy since  jobs may exist in a particular area  but people can not move there to take on such jobs