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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
The size of the country's economically active labor force has
been difficult to estimate because of different definitions of
participation in economic activity, and the absence of accurate
data from official sources, particularly the 1973 and 1983
censuses. In rural areas, large numbers of women and girls were
engaged in traditional productive occupations, but apparently
many have not been included in counts of the active work force.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated in 1980
that the work force was about 6 million persons, or approximately
33 percent of the population. This figure included about 300,000
unemployed. It also included the many male Sudanese working in
other Arab states, a loss to Sudan that may have amounted to as
much as 50 percent of its professional and skilled work force.
The drop in world oil prices in the 1980s caused the Persian Gulf
states to cut back drastically on their expatriate workers,
leading in turn to increased unemployment in Sudan. In mid-1989,
a total of 7,937,000 people were employed in Sudan, according to
an ILO estimate. In the early 1990s, Sudan's employment situation
was exacerbated by the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which resulted in
the departure of the thousands of Sudanese workers based in
Kuwait and Iraq, leaving many of their possessions behind.
Sudan's support of Iraq also contributed to the departure of
thousands of Sudanese workers from Saudi Arabia.
Unemployment figures were affected by the severe drought that
spread throughout Sudan in the 1980s. In 1983-84, for example,
several million people migrated from the worst hit areas in both
the west and the east to Khartoum and other urban areas along the
Nile. Many remained in these areas once the drought had eased,
living in shanty towns and contributing to unemployment or
underemployment in the cities. In addition, more than 1 million
people from the south migrated to the north, as a result of the
civil war and famine in these areas.
Agriculture was the predominant activity in Sudan, although
its share of the labor force has gradually declined as other
sectors of economic activity have expanded. In the 1955-56
census--the only complete count of the labor force for which data
have been published (detailed results of the 1973 and 1983
censuses had not been released as of mid-1991)--almost 86 percent
of those then considered as part of the work force were involved
in agriculture, livestock raising, forestry, fisheries, or
hunting. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning estimated
that by 1969-70 the total had declined to somewhat less than 70
percent and that at the end of the 1970s the sector accounted for
less than 66 percent. In mid-1989, the ILO estimated that about
4,872,000 people were employed in agriculture. Services, which
included a government work force that grew about 10 percent a
year in the 1970s, emerged as the second largest area of
activity, encompassing an estimated 10.4 percent of those
economically active in 1979-80, compared with 4.6 percent in
1955-56. Nonagricultural production--manufacturing, mining,
electric power, and construction--accounted for 6.7 percent
during 1979-80 and about 5.6 percent in 1955-56.
Data as of June 1991
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