By:Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
A number of 111,495 Namibians have submitted their interest to compete for the approximately 13,000 jobs available for the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
As one of the most fierce contests for jobs which highlighted the country’s unemployment and underemployment situation.
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) revealed the figures this week in its census preparation updates.
If one uses the fifth annual Labour Force SurveyLabour Force Survey of 2018 conducted by the NSA, it will indicate that about 31% of the country’s unemployed pool (364,411) has applied for the census temporary jobs.
This highlights the country’s unemployment issues, despite the country’s active labour force being around 1.1 million people, based on the available data.
According to the NSA,the 2023 census project requires approximately 13,000 suitably qualified persons to be employed temporarily to carry out the work in the different phases of the national project.
A total of 101,009 applications were received for various field staff positions alone through the NSA online recruitment system.
A further 10,485 applications were received for the office-based positions, the update revealed.
The statistics agency explained that in their recruitment they had to ensure that they are as inclusive as possible in line with the Affirmative Action Act criteria.
This includes giving preference to persons living with disabilitiesprovidedthey meet the requirements of the positions applied.
A quota system (relative to the percentage composition of the following population groups will be adopted: 1% San people; 1% Ovahimba people; 2% people with disabilities.
In terms of census preparation, the agency has already started training officially on the 24July and will conclude with the mass enumerators training on the 16September.
The training aims to equip participants in all constituencieswith the knowledge needed to conduct and successfully implement the enumeration phase, the agency said.
Currently, there are training sessions taking place in Swakopmund and Otjiwarongo for the PES Master Training and Training of Trainers 1 (ToT 1), respectively.
Beyond the temporary human capital required, the NSA has registered vehicles based on constituencies at the end of June 2023.
NSA will need just over 2,800 vehicles to use countrywide, however, more than 8,000 vehicles were registered during the process.
The vehicles that will be eventually selected will be compensated a daily fee of N$2,000 per day, depending on the enumeration area that the vehicles will be operating in.
“Since we have registered more vehicles than what we would need, the vehicles that are not selected will automatically become part of the reserved vehicles (i.e. vehicles on stand-by) in case of any replacements needed”, the NSA said.
According to the Agency, the random selection process will be conducted via computer-generated random numbers and under the supervision of an external auditor as well as an NSA auditor.
The NSA will inform successful bidders in due course by publishing that information on the NSA website, social media platforms as well as at various Constituency offices.Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na
More Than 110 000 Tried Their Luck With Census Jobs …. Temporary census job expose Nam unemployment
