The latest national household survey, the Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey (SLIHS) from 2018, recorded unemployment at 3.0% under the national ILO definition and 12% under a relaxed definition. Urban and rural results differ. A World Bank/ILO modelled estimate for 2025 was 3.1%, but it is not a new national household survey. The figures therefore do not describe the whole employment situation. In the 2018 survey, 52.5% of workers were self-employed without employees, 33.2% provided unpaid help in a household and only 6.3% were regular employees. Underemployment and informal work can therefore create serious income insecurity even when a person is not counted as openly unemployed. The Directorate of Labour and Employment, Central Employment Exchange and Cline Town Labour Pool are relevant public employment services under MELSS. Section 30 of the Employment Act 2023 assigns employment centres functions such as receiving and displaying vacancies, registering applications, and issuing labour cards and unemployment certificates. Job-seeker registration is a voluntary access pathway. The reviewed sources do not verify a complete operational checklist, processing time or fee for registration or an unemployment certificate. The online LMIS provides vacancy searches, a CV builder and job alerts, and job access through it is free. Section 32 prohibits demanding money, gifts or another benefit in exchange for a job, apart from any prescribed fee. Sierra Leone currently has no general statutory unemployment payment in the reviewed benefit system. The National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) covers old-age or retirement, invalidity and survivors' benefits, not unemployment. The National Social Protection Strategy 2022–2026 treats unemployment benefits as a longer-term objective, ideally by 2040. The National Social Protection Authority (NSPA), established to coordinate social protection under the Social Protection Act passed on 23 January 2025, does not create a general unemployment payment by itself. Targeted programmes can provide functional income or re-entry support, but they are not individual unemployment insurance. The National Social Safety Net (NSSN) focuses on vulnerable people aged 60 and above without regular income for targeted cash or food support. The Productive Social Safety Net and Youth Employment (PSSNYE), implemented through the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA), targets extremely poor households, young people, women and people with disabilities through cash transfers, livelihood packages, productive public works including Green Public Works, and youth enterprise support. Access depends on programme targeting or a specific call, and availability, selection time, fees and payment schedules vary. In 2025, 1,500 youth enterprise grants worth the equivalent of USD 300 each were documented; this was a programme allocation, not a general entitlement. Termination can create rights that are separate from unemployment benefits. Under section 67 of the Employment Act 2023, a worker can request a certificate of service when a contract ends. Section 80 provides severance or an end-of-service benefit after at least one year of continuous service, subject to the statutory rules and exclusions such as gross misconduct; the amount can also depend on the contract or collective agreement. For redundancy, section 82 requires written notice to the Commissioner and the trade union at least three months before contemplated changes, consultation, efforts to reduce job losses and consideration of alternative employment, with the employer using best endeavours to make a redundancy payment. Force majeure or an emergency can change the redundancy position, although end-of-service and other applicable entitlements may remain. A worker can complain about unfair termination to the Commissioner under section 90, with possible remedies including reinstatement, re-employment, a redundancy classification or compensation; the Act uses a minimum benchmark of 24 months of the national minimum wage for compensation.
Unemployment in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone has no direct general unemployment-insurance or statutory unemployment-benefit equivalent in the current system. Job seekers can use Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security (MELSS) employment centres and the online Labour Market Information System (LMIS) for vacancies, applications, CVs and job alerts. Open unemployment figures need care because self-employment, unpaid household work and underemployment make up much of the wider lack of secure paid work.
Tip
Treat unemployment in Sierra Leone as a job-search and income-planning problem, not as a period in which a general state payment will arrive. Start with LMIS and MELSS employment services, then check targeted programmes only if their eligibility rules and current calls fit your situation. If employment has ended, protect certificate, severance, redundancy and complaint rights before assuming that no payment is due.