Lesotho - Working conditions

The World Bank estimates that approximately 35 percent of the labor force is unemployed or underemployed . Another 50 percent are fully or partially employed in South Africa. About 86 percent of the population is rural subsistence farmers and herders. As is the case throughout sub-Saharan Africa, this cohort lives in "roundavels" (circular mud and thatch huts) with outdoor plumbing, oil lamps, and wood heat. Many villages are not connected to roadways. Fewer than 10 percent of the population works in the service and retail industry where wages are low and mistreatment by foreign-owned manufacturing plants resulted in mass civil unrest during the mid-1990s. There are no labor unions.