Friday, February 7, 2025

Hiring and firing easiest in Botswana, but workers still have the best job security in the region

If you are a salary man looking for job security, or an investor looking for a country where it is easiest to hire and fire, then Botswana is a place to be.

Studies by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private sector arm of the World Bank ranks Botswana at the top of SADC countries where investors face the least difficulty in “hiring and firing workers”.

The report assigns Botswana an index of 20, which compares favourably with other countries in the region, Zambia 23, Namibia 27, Zimbabwe 34 and South Africa 41. Indices assign values between 0 and 100, with higher values representing more rigid hiring and firing regulations. The rigidity of Employment Index is an average of three indices: Difficulty in Hiring Index, Rigidity of Hours Index and Difficulty of Firing Index.

Unpacking these indices, however, reveals that Botswana has the least “difficulty of Hiring Index” which is zero but one of the worst “difficulty of Firing” indices which is 40. The only country in the region where it is more difficult to fire workers compared to Botswana is Zimbabwe.

All other regional countries have a higher “Difficulty of Hiring” Index.

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