Good afternoon. Just how high is unemployment in Mozambique? Economists say that there are no reliable statistics available, but three recent incidents suggest that it might be increasing.

The mayor of the town of Marracuene, 30km from Maputo, reports that he recently advertised 60 job vacancies for a new municipal police force, and received over 7,000 applications. While getting over 100 applications for each job may be unexceptional in a big city, Marracuene is just a small town. In cities, there is far more demand: when the Tax Authority in Maputo advertises a job vacancy, for example, it can expect 20,000 applications.

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In central Mozambique meanwhile, the police have given up trying to control the gold rush in Manica province’s Gondola district. A temporary ban on mining has failed to stop people from trying their luck at digging for gold in the province. The ban may even have made things worse by sitting down other informal mining activities in the province. Would-be miners have come over from neighbouring Sofala province to try to find some gold.