About 729,000 Rwandans of working age were unemployed and actively looking for work in May 2026, as the country’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 13.4%, according to the latest Labour Force Survey by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).
The unemployment rate was the same as that recorded in May 2025, indicating that roughly one in seven people participating in the labour market remained without a job.
NISR said Rwanda had 8.75 million people aged 16 and above, considered to be of working age. Of these, 5.43 million were active in the labour market, representing a participation rate of 62.1%.
The survey showed that 4.7 million people were employed, accounting for 53.8% of the working-age population, while about 3.3 million people were outside the labour force. This category includes students, retirees, people engaged in household duties and others who were not seeking employment.
The services sector remained the largest employer, providing jobs for 44.7% of employed people, followed by agriculture at 39.1% and industry at 16.2%.
Unemployment continued to affect women and young people more significantly. Female unemployment stood at 15.5% compared with 11.6% among men, representing a 3.9 percentage-point gap.
Among young people aged 16 to 30, unemployment was recorded at 15.7%. The employment rate for this age group stood at 49.6%, compared with 56.9% among people aged 31 to 54.
Despite the continued challenges, employment levels have improved over recent years. The share of working-age Rwandans with jobs increased from 41.8% in 2022 to 49.5% in 2023, 52% in 2024, 52.3% in 2025 and 52.8% in 2026.
Over the same period, unemployment declined from 23% in 2022 to 16.8% in 2023 and 2024, before stabilising at 13.4% in 2025 and 2026.
Rwanda registered private investment projects worth nearly $8 billion between 2024 and June 2026, with the investments expected to generate about 118,000 jobs.
In 2025, the country created 238,491 new non-agricultural jobs, according to NISR figures.
