Grand Bassa County Lawmaker’s ‘65% Youth Unemployment’ Claim Is Misleading

• In Summary
  
• Grand Bassa County Representative, Alfred Hezekiah Flomo, has claimed that 60–65% of young people in Liberia are unemployed,
  
• But reports from the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services and the World Bank show that youth unemployment is actually around 2–3% of the labor force, and not 65% as claimed by the Lawmaker.
  
• The reports show that many young people are engaged in informal or low-paying work, meaning the real issue is underemployment and job quality, not widespread unemployment as claimed.

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On April 20, Grand Bassa County District #4 Representative, Alfred Flomo, claimed on Facebook that about 60–65% of young people in Liberia are unemployed. He made this claim while pledging to advocate for increased budgetary allocation in the next fiscal year to create local jobs.

According to the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services, an unemployed person is someone who has no work, is available to work, and is actively seeking employment during a specified reference period.

The Claim

Representative Flomo wrote this on Facebook: “60-65% of our young people are unemployed in the 73 districts of Liberia. I will push for a budget allocation in the next budget to create local jobs in our country.”

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Rating Justification

To verify the claim, we reviewed the 2022 Census thematic reports from the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services. According to LISGIS, an unemployed person is someone who has no work, is available for work, and is actively seeking employment during a specified reference period.

The 2022 LISGIS report does not contain a consolidated “youth unemployment rate” figure, but focuses more on employment structure and informality in the labour sector.

The report further emphasizes that most young people are not classified as “unemployed” by definition; rather, many are engaged in informal employment, low-paying or vulnerable jobs, and own-account work.

Meanwhile, we reviewed a 2024 World Bank data set, which estimates youth unemployment in Liberia at approximately 2.1%.

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Additionally, we reviewed data from Global Economy, an online platform that compiles and presents economic, social, and development indicators for countries around the world, and found that in 2024, the unemployment rate for young people in Liberia was estimated at 2.1%.

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Conclusion

Based on this evidence, the claim by Grand Bassa County’s Representative Alfred Flomo that 60–65% of Liberia’s youth are unemployed is misleading.

Available data from LISGIS and the World Bank show that youth unemployment stands at roughly 2–3% of the labor force, though broader challenges such as underemployment and informality remain significant.

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