The Botswana Multi-Topic Household Survey, abbreviated BMTHS, collected its 2024/25 data from November 2024 to November 2025. The results remain preliminary and subject to sampling error. The labour force comprised 1,018,099 people, including 804,663 employed people. Unemployment among people aged 15 to 35 was 28.9%; among young women it was 30.7%, compared with 27.2% among young men, and 37.1% of young people were not in employment, education or training. A discouraged job seeker is available for work but did not actively search during the reference period, so the extended measure includes both actively searching and discouraged people. The Department of Employment Services, or DES, registers job seekers and employers, provides counselling and matches applicants with vacancies through the Labour Market Observatory, or LMO. The LMO Job seekers Database is open to citizen job seekers, normally requires no supporting documents and has no evidenced registration cost, but registration does not guarantee placement because a suitable vacancy is required. Botswana has no evidenced general unemployment insurance or unemployment cash benefit in the current government catalogue. Ipelegeng offers short-term paid public work to unemployed citizens aged 18 or older who hold a valid Omang identity document. Registration is immediate, selection takes place through the village Kgotla, a local community meeting, Village Development Committee, Urban Development Committee or extension teams, the placement lasts at least one calendar month, and an unsuccessful applicant can reapply after that month. Ipelegeng is a temporary labour-market bridge rather than a permanent job, and its Skills Development Component, known as ISDC, provides occupational training in areas such as construction and maintenance, food processing, tourism, arts and crafts, with certification after training. Citizens with a Diploma or Bachelor’s Degree and no work experience can register immediately for the Unemployed Graduate Database, or UGD, through the Directorate of Public Service Management, or DPSM. No supporting documents are required, but placement depends on a matching vacancy and is not guaranteed. The Destitute Allowance is poverty support rather than an unemployment benefit: the listed government income threshold is a maximum of BWP 120 without dependants or BWP 150 with dependants, and eligibility follows an assessment of temporary or permanent destitution. Applicants use a Social and Community Development Officer or Botswana Post, provide an Omang and proof of nationality, and can expect a decision in about one month. Employment-service access and counselling are available, but no general registration duty or benefit conditionality is evidenced. Re-entry into work mainly runs through DES and LMO vacancies, UGD placement, or temporary Ipelegeng work followed by ISDC certification. Severance and labour-dispute claims follow the applicable labour-law process and are separate from unemployment support.
Unemployment in Botswana
Unemployment in Botswana covers people with no paid, profit-generating or family-gain work who actively sought work during the previous seven days and can start. Preliminary 2024/25 household-survey results recorded twenty-one percent unemployment among people aged 15 and older, representing 213,437 people. Extended unemployment, including discouraged job seekers, reached twenty-seven point three percent. Botswana has no evidenced national unemployment-insurance payment, so support relies on job matching, temporary Ipelegeng work, graduate placement and poverty assistance.
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