A Socio-Economic-Political Dimension of Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract The paper adopts a broader perspective in studying the determinants of employment. The main objective of the study is to assess the impact of social and political variables on employment levels after accounting for macroeconomic factors. In addition, the paper adopts a gendered dimension to the labour market, as relatively more women tend to be unemployed or have vulnerable jobs in the informal sector. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares is applied to analyse the drivers of employment. Data for Sub-Saharan Africa is collected from 1991 to 2016. The findings indicate that higher economic growth; more access to finance and education, low corruption as well as political stability positively affect employment. There is thus evidence to extend existing employment analysis and policy making beyond economic factors to embrace social and political constraints.