Unemployment in Sudan

The war that began in April 2023 has destroyed businesses and infrastructure, displaced workers and disrupted payment systems and local labor markets. Unemployment therefore often appears together with lost livelihoods, reduced working hours or forced inactivity. The World Bank estimated unemployment at 32% in 2022, 46% in 2023 and 47% in 2024. IMF projections give different figures of 60.8% for 2024, 60.6% for 2025 and 61.3% for 2026. These figures use different methods and data sources, so they should not be treated as administrative records or compared as if they measured exactly the same population. Sudan has no reliably evidenced, nationwide unemployment registration system with an income-related benefit claim. No verified national benefit amount, application deadline, processing period or payment duration is available. The Labour Code 1997 regulates employment agencies, recruitment and worker registration, but a functioning national jobseeker register, online workflow and broadly effective placement service have not been established in the available evidence. Job searches commonly rely on family and friends, informal networks and local contacts. The clearest formal income protection is severance pay for covered employees. A worker generally needs at least three continuous years with the same employer. The statutory calculation is one basic monthly wage per year for three to nine years of service, 1.5 monthly wages per year for ten to fourteen years, and 1.75 monthly wages per year from fifteen years onward, subject to a maximum of 36 basic monthly wages. Payment is legally assigned to the employer, but enforcement is uncertain during the conflict. The rules do not cover every worker: the Labour Code excludes or underrepresents groups such as civil servants, armed forces personnel, domestic workers, agricultural workers, family workers and casual workers. The National Pensions and Social Insurance Fund, or NPSIF, mainly covers old age, invalidity, survivors, sickness, maternity and employment injury rather than unemployment. Formal coverage is estimated at less than 10% of the workforce, while informal employment was estimated at about 87% in a 2011 ILO assessment. Even many registered self-employed workers have no unemployment coverage. The National Health Insurance Fund, or NHIF, concerns health coverage and does not replace lost wages. State and local labour offices, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Welfare, or MHR&SW, and the Zakat Fund may have relevant administrative or assistance roles, but access and capacity differ between states and regions. Humanitarian and livelihood support provides the main functional alternative where programs operate. UN agencies and local organizations, including UNDP, ILO, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and FAO, have supported cash assistance, food aid, livelihood inputs, vocational skills, wage opportunities, self-employment and small-business support. Microfinance and village savings and loan associations can also serve as livelihood tools. These programs are not automatic unemployment benefits: they depend on the program, donor funding, security, registration and vulnerability assessment. They usually do not charge a user fee, but transport, communication and identity documents can create real access costs. Refugees and internally displaced people, or IDPs, may face missing national identification, long distances to service points, transport barriers and limited integration into labor and social-protection systems. Women, rural workers and self-employed people are particularly exposed to gaps in formal coverage. In urban survey data from May to July 2024, 18% of households reported no income or work compared with 1.6% before the war, full-time employment had roughly halved and 76% reported receiving no assistance. Private networks were more common sources of help than government or NGO support. Some programs offer routes back to earning income rather than regular unemployment payments. In 2024, about 55,500 at-risk young people received vocational training through UN-supported efforts. PROSPECTS Sudan reported around 3,000 wage- and self-employment opportunities as of June 2026, especially in White Nile and Kassala, including refugees, IDPs and host communities. These programs do not provide a national guarantee or automatic placement. Availability must be checked locally because responsibility, eligibility and service continuity change with the region and the security situation.