Foreigners employed in Botswana earn an average of three times more than their citizen counterparts.
The revelation of the huge salary disparities between expatriates and citizens is contained in the Formal Sector Employment statistics for the period ending December 2010, compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and signed by Government Statistician, Anna Majelantle.
The report was released last week.
“Average monthly earnings were P4, 265 for citizens, P12, 176 for non-citizens and P4, 641 for all employees as at end of December 2010. For all employees, average earnings increased by 4.3 percent from P4, 541 in September 2010 to P4, 661 in December,” stated Majelantle in the statistics.
The report shows that overall employment increased by 1.3 percent (4, 943 persons), from 373, 889 in September 2010 to 378, 832 persons in December 2010.
Local government recorded the highest employment of 4.8 percent.
“Most of the increase was from the Ipelegeng programme at 9.3 percent. It should be noted that Ipelegeng programme is seasonal hence high fluctuations in the number employed from quarter to quarter,” said the Statistician General.
Although the report shows that employment increased by 1.3 percent in the period under review, the actual employment figure is lower given that the inclusion of the people employed in the Ipelegeng programme in essence distorts it.
An economist who preferred anonymity scoffed at the inclusion of the people employed under the Ipelegeng programme in the Formal Sector Employment Statistics because, in his view, Ipelegeng is not formal employment and should never be considered to be.
┬á“In fact, when I work on my formal employment figures I always exclude the Ipelegeng people. That is not formal employment and it distorts what obtains in the employment scenario. Ipelegeng is just another form of a drought relief programme and does not fall within the ambit of formal employment.
The inclusion simply distorts the formal employment figures,” said the economist.
Efforts to get a justification from Majelantle and her deputy on the inclusion of the Ipelegeng numbers in the Formal Sector Employment statistics drew a blank at the time of going to press on Monday as her secretary said they had both gone out for a meeting.
By sector according to the report, the private sector had the largest share accounting for 49.2 percent followed by central government with 27 percent with local government and parastatals recording 19.4 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.
The report states that there was no significant change in industrial employment between the two months except for water and electricity and mining and quarrying which recorded an increment of 2.6 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.
The report further reveals that in the period under review, 18, 014 employed persons were non-citizens and thus constituted 4.8 percent of the country’s total workforce of 378, 832 people in the period under review.
It is noted that most of the non-citizens were employed in the wholesale and retail trade sector that recorded 17.8 percent followed by education at 15.3 percent. Construction and manufacturing recorded 12.9 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
Males continued to dominate the employment matrix in all sectors with local government topping at 66.7 percent followed by parastatals and the private sectors at 60.5 and 57 percent respectively.
The proportion of employees by sex at industry level shows that males were dominant in mining and quarrying, construction and water and electricity industries with 88.8, 86.6 and 74.8 percent respectively.
The highest proportion of females was found in hotels and restaurants with 70.9 percent, followed by health and social work, and other community services with 67.5 percent and 63.2 percent respectively.
A significant proportion (61.7 percent) of females was recorded by financial intermediaries.
