Prominent human rights advocate Madi Jobarteh has strongly questioned the Gambian government’s claim that it created 163,000 new jobs by the first quarter of 2026, describing it as lacking credibility, transparency, and statistical backing.
In a detailed statement released on Thursday, Jobarteh, founder of the Edward Francis Small Center for Rights and Justice, said the figure appears “practically impossible” given the realities of The Gambia’s labor market and data from the Gambia Labor Force Survey (GLFS) 2025.
According to the GLFS 2025, The Gambia’s total labor force stands at approximately 675,470 people, of whom 619,620 are employed. Jobarteh noted that 163,000 new jobs would represent roughly 25 percent of the entire labor force – a scale of job creation rarely seen even in the world’s largest economies without massive industrial expansion or huge foreign investment inflows.
“None of these conditions currently exist in The Gambia,” he said.
Jobarteh pointed out that if such a significant number of jobs had indeed been created, there should be clear evidence of reduced unemployment and underemployment, particularly among youth and women. Yet, he observed, communities across the country continue to face high youth unemployment, irregular migration pressures, and economic hardship, with no publicly available data showing dramatic improvements.
The claim has been attributed to the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS). Still, Jobarteh stressed that the Bureau has not published any 2026 labor force report, statistical bulletin, methodology, or dataset to support the figure.
He further contextualized the claim in light of the workforce’s size. The total government workforce is estimated at no more than 40,000, while the combined strength of the Gambia Armed Forces and Police is unlikely to exceed 10,000. The GLFS 2025 puts the formal workforce in both public and private sectors at roughly 116,700. Roughly 500,000 Gambians work in the informal sector.
“If 163,000 new jobs were genuinely created, the government must explain where these workers came from, which sectors absorbed them, and whether these jobs are formal, informal, temporary, seasonal, or permanent,” Jobarteh said.
He challenged the Ministers of Finance, Employment, and Information, as well as the GBoS, to release a detailed sector-by-sector breakdown, regional distribution, gender data, and information on the nature and source of the alleged jobs.
“Public trust in national statistics and governance depends on accuracy, honesty, and evidence-based communication,” Jobarteh concluded. “Employment figures are too important to be reduced to political propaganda.”
