While Ethiopia has achieved high levels of annual GDP growth in the past decade and considerably reduced poverty, labour markets at the regional level continue to suffer from internal dysfunction and, more recently, from political uncertainty. Labour market constraints can have detrimental effects in refugee-hosting regions such as Tigray.

To understand the labour dynamics, the International Labour Organization (ILO) in early 2020 commissioned a rapid integrated labour market assessment of the supply side (jobseekers and employees) and the demand side (enterprises and employers) in refugee-hosting communities, in the Shire area in Tigray.

The study offers a deep dive into the labour dynamics in the Shire area, with a strong focus on the existing bottlenecks that hinder the region’s growth. Examining the relationship between supply and demand, as well as how labour market institutions function at a regional level, provides a more contextualized snapshot that nuances national-level socio-economic indicators. The report offers practical recommendations that can be implemented to better regulate the Tigrayan labour market and enable the region to reap the benefits generated by Ethiopia’s developing economy.