Estimating Uganda’s Exportable Labour Using a New Pro-poor Index of Unemployment

Abstract

This paper reviews recent evidence suggesting the need for many African countries to expand labour exports so as to benefit from increased remittance inflows. Export of labour has continued to be viewed as brain drain with a general lack of sufficient data on what exactly constitutes exportable labour. The paper estimates Uganda’s exportable labour using a new Unemployment Index that draws from Kakwani and Son Model (2006). It finds that Uganda’s exportable labour is more than twice the current pool of Ugandan emigrants and is constituted by mainly the unskilled casual workers plus the increasing graduate unemployed. Policy implications are drawn to harness this substantial labour resource through gainful employment abroad.

Keywords: Unemployment, Uganda, labour export