Available statistics show that Africa’s rate of
growth has consistently outperformed the global rate
over the last decade; World Bank Global Economic
Prospects 2014 reports that the growth rate in subSaharan
Africa (SSA) is expected to improve to 5.1
percent in 2016, from an estimated flat rate of sub-5
percent in 2014 and 2015. Similarly, a combination
of prudent macroeconomic management, market
liberalization and privatization efforts, investments
in the copper industry and related infrastructure,
and steep increase in copper prices coupled with
growth in exports, helped Zambia achieve an
average annual growth of about 5.7 percent during
the last decade. However, Zambia’s high growth
economic performance has not translated into
significant poverty reduction; the sustained growth
has not been inclusive and on the other hand , had
been accompanied by lack of access to wage income
as implied by low employment opportunities (for the
youth in particular), in the formal sector. This paper
assesses the historical capacity of the different
sectors of the Zambian economy to absorb labour.
This involves a review of growth trends in the
economic sub-sectors and computation of
employment elasticity of growth. It follows from
results of our analysis that to deal with Zambia’s
youth unemployment challenges, targeted measures
would have to be directed at removing impediments
to growth in sectors with relatively high employment
elasticity.