Almost one million trained health workers jobless as Africa faces severe staffing shortage

Around 943,000 trained health workers in Africa are estimated to be unemployed, despite health services across the continent having less than half the workforce they need.

The World Health Organization’s latest assessment found that Africa’s health workforce grew to 5.72 million in 2024, up from 4.3 million in 2018. However, the region still has only 46% of the workers required to meet population health needs and is projected to face a shortage of 5.85 million by 2030.

The contradiction is not being caused by an excess of trained professionals. WHO said governments often lack the funding and approved positions needed to employ them, while recruitment ceilings and slow public-sector processes leave qualified workers unable to secure posts.

Around 30% of health graduates remain unemployed one year after completing their training. Clearing the existing employment backlog would require an estimated annual investment of $7.8 billion, according to the report.

African health ministers have now committed to educating, employing and retaining three million additional health workers by 2035. WHO has warned that expanding training alone will not solve the crisis unless countries also create funded jobs and improve working conditions sufficiently to retain skilled staff.

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