Report reveals over 70,000 formal jobs created each year.

In the report, NIS indicated that Cameroon’s formal job market saw steady growth with an average of 69,826 permanent jobs created each year. 

According to the National Institute of Statistics, the total number of formal jobs in 2022 reached 1,178,043, up from 635,969 in 2015, which marks an 88.2% increase over eight years. 

The NIS report attributes this rise mainly to the sharp growth in the number of businesses, which went from 209,482 in 2016 to 438,893 in 2022, an increase of 109.5%.

The report also carried data showing a growing gender gap of the total jobs in 2022, with 806,712 held by men, representing 68% of the workforce.

It also stated that women accounted for only 32%, which is a significant drop from 44% in 2015, indicating a decline in women’s participation in the formal labour market.

NIS also added that most jobs were found in the tertiary sector, which accounted for 78% of total employment, with the secondary sector making up 18%.

The primary sector, the report mentioned, had the smallest share compared to 2015, with the tertiary sector gaining 4% points, while the primary and secondary sectors dropped by 1 and 3 points respectively.

Stating the main source of this job creation, the report said, in the primary sector, agriculture remained the main source of permanent jobs, making up 68.7% of the sector’s employment. 

It however shared that agriculture jobs fell by 19.5 points, mainly due to the crisis in the Anglophone regions, which forced the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, a major employer in agriculture, to cut its workforce.

On livestock and forestry jobs, NIS recorded gains which rose by 3.6 and 15.2 points, respectively. 

In the secondary sector, it indicated that jobs were mainly concentrated in food processing and clothing manufacturing, which together provided 112,158 jobs, showing a 51.4% of the sector’s total employment.

In the tertiary sector, commerce accounted for 49.8% of the jobs, with very small enterprises due to their large number, providing the majority of modern formal jobs at 55.6%, while large companies, though fewer, accounted for 22.2%.

Revealing the statistics from various cities of the country, NIS indicated that Littoral and Centre regions continued to lead in job creation, with the cities of Douala and Yaounde dominating the landscape. 

It showed that Douala alone held 37.7% of all formal jobs, while Yaounde accounted for 25.5%, due to the fact that the cities are hosting most of the large and mid-sized firms operating in the country.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3446 of Monday May 12, 2025