About LMO

Introduction
The Human Resource Development Council was established to spear head the development of human resource in Botswana. One of its core mandate as stipulated in the HRDC Act No. 17 of 2013, Part II Section 4 (f), is to “establish and manage a national labour market information system and national education and skills development data base”. It is on the basis of this section of the Act that HRDC is spearheading the constitution of the Labour Market Observatory Committee to observe the market trends.
Purpose
Inherent to the success of the labour market framework is a functional and effective oversight body which monitors and understands labour market patterns and trends. This body, the Labour Market Observatory (LMO), is essential if Botswana is to remain competitive in an economy and labour market that is ever changing in terms of demographics, occupation skills required, technological advances and future training demands. Since inception, the Observatory (LMO) Committee has been mostly quiescent albeit the challenge of high unemployment, especially among the youth.
 
The resuscitation of the LMO is, therefore, critical during 2016/17 so that it contributes to the efforts of addressing unemployment during NDP 11 by facilitating access to timely, accurate and relevant information on the labour market by employers, potential workers, businesses, government, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders, among others. A brief background to the Botswana LMO, the goal and objectives, structure, terms of reference, membership as well as assumptions about the labour market Botswana LMO are outlined below.
Background of LMO in Botswana
The history of the Botswana LMO dates as far back as 2003 when four organisations, namely, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, through the then Central Statistics Office (CSO) and now Statistics Botswana (SB), the then Division of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs and the then Botswana Training Authority (BOTA) and now Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) collaborated and signed a memorandum to establish a Labour Market Observatory

In April 2007 the European Union provided financial support to the Committee to commission a consultancy and a benchmarking exercise on the feasibility to establish the Botswana LMO.  In March 2010 another consultancy on the Establishment of the Botswana LMO was commissioned and the LMO was officially launched in December of the same year.
Goal and Objectives
The goal of the LMO is to provide relevant, quality and timely labour market information for users to make informed decisions regarding the labour market situation in Botswana.

The Objectives:

  1.     To generate and update labour market information;
  2.     To increase awareness of labour market information; and
  3.     To increase the accessibility of labour market information.