First quarter results for job creation in July

Teams deployed to the field are already assembling data for counting to commence.

Members of the National Observatory of Employment and Vocational Training of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training together with staff of the National Institute of Statistics, devolved services of the National Employment Fund and the Integrated Support Programme for Actors of the Informal Sector, PIAASI are rounding off operation to count jobs created in the first quarter of 2015.

The exercise that began on April 5, 2015 has seen teams comb 4,000 enterprises, public and para-public companies as well as Non-governmental Organisations that have had authorisation to operate in Cameroon, majority of which are in Yaounde and Douala to hand out forms whereby staff of personnel departments will list the number of jobs created in the first months of the year be they temporal or permanent.

The operation falls within the announced creation of 350,000 jobs for the fiscal year by the Head of State during his traditional address to youths.

The Coordinator of the Technical Secretariat of ONEFOP, Samuel Inack Inack says, hitches were witnessed in the northern part of the country. Forms were unable to reach the destination on time and after meeting in Mbalmayo last week, teams were re-dispatched to that part of the country with the entire package for data collection.

Regional Governors are expected to disseminate the message for the exercise’s smooth running. They have been charged to put in place data collection networks while Divisional and Subdivisional officers do the same.

Teams collected data in regions of the south of the country between June 1 and 15. Earlier announced to be out by this month, the exercise coordinator regretted that figures for the first quarter can only be out by July with teams expected to commence analysing data by early in the month. Figures will reflect national, regional and sector-by-sector ratings.

The exercise also falls within government’s desire to regularly measure its employment performance. The exercise is expected to serve as a springboard for decision-making. It is equally expected to serve as an indicator to classify the best 100 enterprises in matters of job-creation.

In 2013, 283,443 new jobs were created against 250,000 projected.