Unemployment in Comoros

The most recent household survey identified by the ILO is ENESI 2021, which recorded a national unemployment rate of 9.4% and youth unemployment of about 22%. An ILO and World Bank model estimated 3.8% for 2025. These figures are not directly comparable because they use different definitions and modelling methods. The unemployment rate also does not show whether a household lacks sufficient income. About 88% of the active population works informally, while formal social-protection coverage excluding health care was about 3% of the population in 2022. The main formal entry point for job search is the Maison de l’Emploi (MDE), which operates under the Ministry responsible for labour and youth. It supports job registration, matching, guidance and entry into work. The Politique Nationale de l’Emploi (PNE), the national employment policy, recognizes a right to work and free choice of occupation and provides for additional training for unemployed people who can work. The available evidence states that every job request and job offer must be registered with the MDE and that recruitment outside this registration process is unlawful. The detailed implementation rules, deadlines, documents and MDE fees have not been verified. Comoros has no evidenced nationwide contributory unemployment insurance or general unemployment cash benefit. The available information does not establish a benefit amount, contribution period, application deadline, payment duration, extension rule, recurring reporting duty, job-search sanction or appeal procedure. The Caisse de Retraite des Comores (CRC) concerns pensions. CNPS or CNSPS arrangements mainly concern work-related illness, occupational accidents or the development of social protection, not a verified replacement income for unemployment. Some alternatives serve different purposes. Shock-responsive and resilient social safety nets provide emergency cash transfers to vulnerable households through a Social Registry and have covered more than 19,000 households in 122 villages under the documented programme. Access depends on vulnerability and project criteria, not simply on being unemployed. An earlier Social Safety Net Project selected poor households for Cash-for-Work, reportedly offering about 60 days per year at 1,000 KMF per day during 2016–2018. That programme was project-based and did not create a continuing legal entitlement. Family assistance, village and community networks, tontines, associations and transfers from the diaspora remain practical sources of temporary support, particularly in informal and agricultural work. A tontine is a community savings arrangement in which members contribute regularly and receive funds according to agreed rules. These arrangements can provide short-term help but do not create an enforceable unemployment payment. The MDE can also connect job seekers with the Centre d’employabilité francophone located within the MDE. This service offers employment advice and tutoring, additional skills training, professional certificates and pre-incubation for possible self-employment. The PNE also refers to labour-intensive public work, self-employment, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and movement from informal to formal work. These pathways lead into employment or continuing education rather than forming a separate unemployment insurance system. The documented findings apply across Ngazidja, Ndzuwani and Mwali; no reliable differences below the island level have been established.