This paper examines the structure of labour market and unemployment in Sudan. One advantage
of our analysis in this paper is that we explain several stylized facts on labour market using new
secondary data on population, employment and unemployment based on Sudan Central Bureau
of Statistics (2010) the Fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census (2008). An interesting
element in our analysis is that we explain several stylized facts on the relation between structure
of labour market and demographic structure, labour force, participation rates, economic
activities, low skill level and high unemployment rate defined by gender, mode of living and
main geographic areas in Sudan. Different from the findings in the empirical literature in support
of Phillips curve on the negative correlation between inflation and unemployment rates, we find
positive and significant correlation between unemployment and inflation rates in Sudan during
the period (2000-2008). Moreover, different from the analysis in the Sudanese literature we
present a more comprehensive analysis of four stylized facts on unemployment problem in
Sudan, these include distinction of several types of unemployment; interpretation of
unemployment problem from two different endogenous and exogenous perspectives due to
endogenous and exogenous causes; analysis of high incidence of unemployment among youth
population and high mismatch between educational qualifications –supply- and labour market
requirements- demand. The major policy implication from our findings indicate that since
unemployment problem is related to these endogenous and exogenous causes, therefore, policies
intervention for reducing unemployment should deal with these endogenous and exogenous
causes. Notably, improvement of job creation and quality of educational policies and consistency
between educational qualifications (output) and labour market requirements. Another major
policy implication from our result on the significant positive correlation between increase in
unemployment and inflation rates (2000-2008), implies that macroeconomic policies aimed at or
targeting reducing inflation rates would also contribute to reduce unemployment rates in Sudan.