Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Nour, S.
Author-Email: nour@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Khartoum, UNU-MERIT
Title: Structure of labour market and unemployment in Sudan
Abstract: This paper examines the structure of the labour market and unemployment 
	 in Sudan. One advantage of our analysis is that we explain several 
	 stylized facts on the labour market using new secondary data on 
	 population, employment and unemployment based on Sudan Central Bureau of 
	 Statistics 2010 the Fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census 2008. 
	 We explain several stylized facts on the relation between the structure 
	 of the labour market and demographic structure, labour force, 
	 participation rates, economic activities, low skill level and high 
	 unemployment rate defined by gender and mode of living in Sudan. 
	 Different from the findings in the empirical literature in support of 
	 the Phillips curve on the negative correlation between inflation and 
	 unemployment rates, we find a positive and significant correlation 
	 between unemployment and inflation rates in Sudan during the period 
	 2000-2008. Moreover, different from the analysis in Sudanese literature, 
	 we present a more comprehensive analysis of four stylized facts on the 
	 unemployment problem in Sudan, including identifying several types of 
	 unemployment; interpretation of unemployment problems from due to 
	 endogenous and exogenous causes; analysis of the high incidence of 
	 unemployment among youth population and a high mismatch between 
	 educational qualifications supply and labour market requirements 
	 demand. The major policy implication from our findings is that the 
	 unemployment problem is related to endogenous and exogenous causes; 
	 therefore policy interventions for reducing unemployment should deal 
	 with these endogenous and exogenous causes. Notably, improvement of job 
	 creation and quality of educational policies and consistency between 
	 educational qualifications output and labour market requirements. 
	 Another major policy implication from our results on the significant 
	 positive correlation between increase in unemployment and inflation 
	 rates 2000-2008, implies that macroeconomic policies aimed at or 
	 targeting reducing inflation rates would also help to reduce 
	 unemployment rates in Sudan.
Classification-JEL: E24, J10, J11, J20, J21, J23, J24, J64
Keywords: Human capital, Labour market, employment, unemployment, Sudan 
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20140231
Number: 2014-016
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2014/wp2014-016.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 113 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2014016