Page 14 - Economic transformation

urban areas (66 percent). The inadequacy of growth in employment in the country is, in

part, illustrated by the fact that nearly 7 out of 10 unemployed Gambian’s main method

of seeking employment is through friends and relatives. In contrast, only 8 percent resort

to responding to job advertisements as a method of seeking employment (GLFS 2018).

Additionally, over one out of 5 underemployed Gambians are underemployed due to the

‘inability to find more work’, suggesting that employment is not growing adequate

enough to support robust economic transformation.

Besides general employment levels, the prevailing situation has contributed to the

persistence of gender and spatial inequalities with people living in rural areas generally

earning less than those in urban areas. Additionally, estimates from the Gambia Labour

Force Survey 2018, show that men generally earn an estimated 6 percent more than

women (See Figure 10 below).

Figure 10: Gambia – Gender and spatial inequality ion earnings

Importantly, data from the 2018 Gambia Labour Force Survey shows that

differences in earnings among the genders sets in early. The data suggests that the average

difference in earnings between men and women start as early as at age 25. Consequently,

by age 30 men will generally be earning 4 percent more than their female counterparts.

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