Is 80% Unemployment realistic?

Zimbabwe has not been keeping credible official records of just about everything since the mid-nineties. So when political, economic and social commentators are drafting their reports they mainly rely on guesstimates for their statistics. Naturally, one has to take any figures being thrown about with a huge pinch of salt. It is always important to know not only the intended audiences of these reports, but also the intended responses.

One piece of statistics that is hugely and extensively quoted is the ‘80% unemployment’ rate. Everyone seems to have taken it up. BBC and CNN have used it continuously in the last two weeks. But is 80% unemployment feasible in our society? Who carried out the survey? Does that mean that only 1 in 5 Zimbabweans has a steady source of income? I think everything depends on what definition of ‘unemployed’ is being used.

Personally, I think this figure is just crude propaganda. I’ve seen the figure steadily rise from 30% unemployment in the year 2000 to 80% in 2007. The problem is that 80% unemployment has been there since 2005. Why has the figure stopped rising considering that things have become even more desperate in Zimbabwe? For once, the government of Robert Mugabe is justified in disputing these figures. However, their figure of 25% unemployment is ludicrous too!

Nothing but a total collapse of Zimbabwe should occur at 80% unemployment or higher. Does anyone out there disagree with me that it is not possible to have unemployment of 80% in a country like Zimbabwe? I would love to hear from you.