ADDIS ABABA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has created over 1.7 million job opportunities through the government's job-creation initiative during the just completed 2016 / 2017 Ethiopian fiscal year, according to the Ethiopian Urban Job Creation and Food Security Council.
The council, in its regular meeting held on Friday, revealed that the east African country, which had an initial plan to benefit 2.1 million citizens through the initiative, was able to create opportunities for 1.7 million people who reside in federal cities across the country.
The council had been implementing a platform to register job-seekers across the country, in which 1.7 million people were registered and employed through various sectors during the reported Ethiopian fiscal year.
Ethiopia's manufacturing sector, followed by the construction industry, was said to be at the forefront in creating job opportunities for the burgeoning working class Ethiopians during the stated period.
From the total of 1.7 million Ethiopians who have secured jobs last fiscal year, 61,000 are graduates from higher education institutes while 128,000 others are graduates of technical and vocational schools across the country.
According to data from the Ethiopian Urban Job Creation and Food Security Council, 71 percent of the beneficiaries were youngsters and 46 percent of them were women job-seekers.
The Ethiopian government, through its employment opportunity creation initiative, has established over 17 billion Ethiopian birr (over 740 million U.S. dollars) value-chain trading by engaging close to 258,000 enterprises, it was noted.
