Rural wage labour in Mozambique. Preliminary research results

Dr John Sender is a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre.

The paucity of quantitative information on rural labour markets in Africa is remarkable. Very little is known about those who work for wages as seasonal farm labourers, domestic servants or casual construction workers. Between 2002 and 2003, about 3,300 rural wage workers in three provinces in Mozambique were interviewed, as well as several hundred small-scale employers and over 30 large-scale employers. The methods and rationale for the research and some statistics describing the sample will be presented, and a preliminary analysis of the relationship between rural poverty and different types of wage work will be discussed.