Home / Unemployment / Lesotho
Lesotho — Unemployment
Unemployment Rate for Lesotho, 1991–2025.
Latest value · 2025
16.32%
Unemployment Rate · % of total labor force · +5.3% since 1991
Unemployment for Lesotho was 16.32% in 2025, according to the latest World Bank data. The series covers 35 years, from 1991 to 2025. The highest recorded value was 18.39% in 2020. The lowest was 15.45% in 1992 (about 1.1× the low point). Across that span the compound annual growth rate works out to 0.15% per year.
Lesotho ranks 14 of 187 economies on this measure (1 = highest), putting it in the top 7%. The median for Sub-Saharan Africa is 5.45%, so Lesotho sits above it. It peaked in 2020 and has fallen 11% since. Over the last decade (2015–2025) the figure moved up 1%.
Key figures
Latest (2025)
16.32%
First (1991)
15.49%
Change
+5.3%
Highest
18.39%
in 2020
Lowest
15.45%
in 1992
Average
16.18%
Annual growth (CAGR)
0.15%
Years of data
35
Recent years
| Year | % of total labor force |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 16.32% |
| 2024 | 16.34% |
| 2023 | 16.35% |
| 2022 | 16.62% |
| 2021 | 18.21% |
| 2020 | 18.39% |
| 2019 | 16.88% |
| 2018 | 16.61% |
| 2017 | 16.38% |
| 2016 | 16.14% |
| 2015 | 16.22% |
| 2014 | 16.07% |
Reading this correctly. Share of the labor force without work but available for and seeking employment. National definitions differ, so cross-country comparison needs care. Figures are in % of total labor force. Comparing this series with a different measure of the same concept (for example a nominal figure against a purchasing-power-parity figure) will give misleading results.
Related data
Source. World Bank Open Data, indicator
SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS — Unemployment Rate. Data licensed under CC BY 4.0. Values are reproduced as published; this page computes the summary statistics (change, CAGR, extremes) from the underlying annual series. View the original dataset on data.worldbank.org.