May 1st: Labor but no ground to merrymaking

What does the word “work” meant at all to Madagascans? It has little to do with a profession in its common sense. Earning money and securing proper basic needs as those of one’s own family is enough to summarize the word’s definition. Working widely extends far beyond the formal circle of standard companies, although the basic composition of the informal sector consists in workers paid by a boss. In Madagascar, the work/employment ratio, in other words, the country’s economy’s capacity to provide money making jobs to its population is told to reach 83%. The flattering figure hides however a grim reality as much as a developing country’ standard feature: underemployment, low standard workers and poor services.
The INSTAT’ studies conducted in 2012 and 2013 revealed that 68% of the active population earns not more than Ar 610 000 a year, or at least US$ 1.25 a day. This is the international threshold of extreme poverty. Such data lead to the conclusion that 7 active people out of 10 have no decent job to rely on. Pay rises proportions might well look significant, are actually made insignificant by a rampaging inflation taking its toll on low basic wage standards. In 2012, the average wage amounted to Ar 151 000 a month although unemployment rates are inferior to 1.7% on national scale, 4.5% in urban areas.
So paramount is the need for a decent activity in the struggle against poverty. Surveys equally reveal that one child out of four happens to be economically active in rural areas. Those kids help their parents in the fields or at home. In urban areas, underage labor before or after school is a concern to 1 child out of 7.
Enhancement of employment standards consequently turns out to be the single long lived solution to reduce poverty in any significant way. Apart from indecently low wage levels, social security is an alien concept to 90% of the population. An incoming reform of social protection in Madagascar aims at introducing farmers, independent and private workers into the social security system, and, by so doing, abruptly quadruple the number of members to be entitled to pensions as well as to some extent of social protection.
300 000 young people, graduates or not, enter the job market every year. “The young ones generally apply for jobs, requirements of which do not match their qualifications. Either they aim much too high from scratch, or much to low in order to make a professional start” declared a human asset manager during a job exhibition. Besides, companies often notice the gap between their jobs’ requirements and the applicants’ actual know-how granted by superior education institutes.
Finding a first job proves increasingly hard to beginners, since recruiters are more seduced by professional experience. The qualification gap is terribly wide in the industrial field. The Malagasy worker consequently drops much of his advantage due to an average production efficiency found wanting. In the end, the basic labor cost proves much higher here than anywhere else