Unemployment in Ivory Coast

The local terms are chômage for unemployment, demandeur d’emploi for a job seeker and attestation de chômage for an unemployment certificate. ONEF and the SIMT provide labour-market data, but the available figures use different reference years and statistical approaches. ONEF reported 5.1% for 2024, while other national figures reported 12.9% based on 2019 and 2.9% for 2019. These figures are not directly comparable. Informal employment accounted for 91.6% of employment in 2021, while social protection coverage was reported at 27% in 2024. Job loss therefore affects formal employees, informal workers and independent workers differently. The Ministère de l’Emploi, de la Protection sociale et de la Formation professionnelle and its Direction Générale de l’Emploi oversee employment policy. The Agence Emploi Jeunes, or AEJ, provides job matching, personal support, skills registration, qualifying training, apprenticeship, retraining, chantier-école programmes and follow-up after placement. A job seeker can register online or contact a regional AEJ office. Access depends on the programme, and uniform fees or processing times have not been published. Côte d’Ivoire accepted Part IV on unemployment of ILO Convention No. 102 in 2023. This legal status does not prove that a general unemployment insurance scheme or unemployment cash benefit operates in practice. The publicly available CNPS catalogue documents family benefits, maternity benefits, work-accident and occupational-disease benefits, and old-age benefits, but not a general continuing unemployment payment. General duties to register, remain available, accept work or face sanctions are not established in the available evidence. Before employment ends, a worker should secure the termination letter, certificat de travail, salary statement and CNPS records. When a fixed-term contract ends without conversion to an indefinite contract, the end-of-contract indemnity is 3% of the total gross wages paid under the contract and is paid with the final wage. Exceptions include refusal of an equivalent indefinite contract, early voluntary resignation and faute lourde. An economic dismissal gives priority for rehiring in the same category for two years. During the notice period, the worker receives two paid days per week to look for work, and an address change should be communicated to the employer. The attestation de chômage can support a CNPS family-benefit file. It remains valid for six months from the day after employment ends and is not an unemployment-insurance certificate. The Inspection du travail can be involved in employment termination and collective-dismissal supervision, while CNPS handles social-insurance matters. Filets Sociaux Productifs provide a functional safety-net alternative for selected poor or vulnerable households, not an unemployment-specific benefit. Selection combines geographic targeting, a household survey and local validation with the corps préfectoral. Selected households may receive 36,000 FCFA per quarter for up to three years. The programme had reached 527,000 households cumulatively in 2025 across 31 regions and 108 municipalities. Losing a job alone does not create entitlement. Independent workers enrolled in the mandatory RSTI scheme pay 12% of the relevant contribution base, with monthly contributions ranging from 3,600 to 21,600 FCFA. Daily allowances cover sickness, accidents or maternity after a 14-day waiting period, for up to 300 days over three years. They do not insure involuntary job loss. Re-entry usually follows AEJ registration, skills profiling, job placement or short qualifying training, followed by post-placement support. Informal workers may use social-protection programmes or income-generating activities only when they satisfy the applicable poverty and programme criteria.