Sudan’s last labor force survey was in 2011 and its last nationally-representative household survey was in 2014. This brief reviews the results of the publicly available Sudan Labor Market Panel Survey 2022, the first nationally-representative household survey since 2014, covering an array of labor and human development topics. These data preceded the 2023 civil war and provide a baseline for understanding the state of Sudan’s labor market pre-conflict. Sudan’s labor market in 2022 continued to be primarily agrarian and informal. Only 35% of working-age adults were employed (59% of men and 12% of women). The unemployment rate was 8% (as a share of the labor force, 7% for men and 15% for women). A large share (39%) of employment was in agriculture, 45% of employment was in non-wage work, and aside from wage work in the public sector (14% of employment), the vast majority of employment was informal (98% of private sector wage work was informal). Thus, even before the 2023 civil war, the Sudanese labor market struggled with low employment rates and high rates of vulnerable employment.
