Primary, secondary and tertiary
Each sector's published share of total employment, or its employment in thousands, for one year. Primary: agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and quarrying; secondary: manufacturing, utilities and construction; tertiary: the other groups.
Breakdown and display options
Annual (calendar year) values in this selection: 1990–2025. Missing periods remain gaps; a requested year is never replaced.
Sector (labour historical series, Tables 1.4 and 1.5)
Share of total employment by sector, Republic of Mauritius, 2025
Unit: %
Hatched bars: caution or provisional status. See the table for each value’s notes.
Choose a value here or select a point in the chart. Missing values remain visible.
| Period / category | % | Status & notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 · Primary | 5.8 | provisional |
| 2025 · Secondary | 23.4 | provisional |
| 2025 · Tertiary | 70.8 | provisional |
Displayed categories include Tertiary: 70.8 %; Secondary: 23.4 %; Primary: 5.8 %. The table contains every returned category.
Publication status Provisional: 2025. Later releases may revise these figures.
- 3 of 3 published categories in the drawing, for 2025. The table contains every returned category for this selection. Bar lengths use a common zero baseline.
- Coverage 1983Republic of Mauritius, by inference. The historical series states no geographic scope. Table 1.1's note 1 names its sources: the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Survey (CMPHS), which covers 'all private Mauritian households in the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues', and the Survey of Employment and Earnings, whose industry tables include Rodrigues from March 1991. The Year 2025 release describes the survey's estimates as those of 'the Mauritian population aged 16 years and above in the Republic of Mauritius; foreign workers are not included'. None of the labour files names Agalega or St Brandon, so whether they are covered is not known.
- Coverage 1990Ages 12 and above, as printed: Tables 1.3(a) and 1.3(b) note '(c) Estimates refer to population aged 12 years and above' for 1990-1994 and 1995-1999, although Table 1.1's title says '16 years and over' for its whole span. The figures are served as published. The file states no age limit for 1983-1989 other than that title.
- Definition change 2000Age limit. The publisher dates the change to ages 16 and over three ways: Tables 1.3(a)-(b) state 'Estimates refer to population aged 12 years and above' for 1990–1999; Tables 1.4-1.5, note 3, say 'Employment figures refer to population aged 16 years & over for years 2000 onwards'; the Year 2025 release, the 1st Quarter 2026 release and the CMPHS methodology say 'as from year 2007, labour force estimates are based on population aged 16 years and above, following the amendment to the Labour Act in December 2006'. Table 1.1's title says '16 years and over' for 1983–2025. The definition changes at 2000, the date the historical series itself prints, so 1999 and 2000 are not compared.
- Coverage 2004Survey changes, 2004-2005. 'From 1999 to 2003, around 6,500 households were covered each year. In 2004, the sample was increased to 8,640 so that reliable quarterly estimates of labour force, employment and unemployment could be worked out. As from 2005, the sample for the year has been further increased to 11,280.' Data were collected every quarter in 2004 and monthly from 2005, and from 2005 the Relative Development Index replaced the urban, semi-urban and rural locations as the first-stage stratification.
- Coverage 2006Reference week. 'Up to 2005, the reference period for data on labour force was the last week of the survey month. As from 2006, the reference week has been changed to the second week of the survey month.'
- Discrepancy 2007The releases and the survey's methodology date ages 16 and over 'as from year 2007', following the amendment to the Labour Act in December 2006; the historical series dates it from 2000 (Tables 1.4-1.5, note 3). The series is served as published: comparisons across 2006 and 2007 are allowed, and the definition change is recorded at 2000.
- Discrepancy 2012Not revised on the 2022 Census in this series. The Year 2025 release (19 May 2026) says: 'As from the first quarter 2025, labour force, employment and unemployment estimates are published based on population figures revised according to the 2022 population census results. Prior estimates have been revised for the period 2012 to 2024.' The historical series (25 September 2026) marks only 2022–2024 as revised on that census, and for 2012–2021 it differs from the release: the release prints 2015 employment of 534,000 (male 330,500, female 203,500), where this series' Mauritian labour force minus the unemployed gives 538,300 (333,800 and 204,500), and unemployment rates of 9.1% in 2020 and, for women, 11.0% in 2020 and 10.5% in 2021, where this series prints 9.2, 11.1 and 10.6. Every figure is served as published.
- Discrepancy 20192019: Table 1.5 prints the tertiary sector's share as 67.7%, where Table 1.4's 393.8 thousand of Table 1.1's 582.2 is 67.6%; the three printed shares add up to 100.0 only with 67.7. Served as printed, never recomputed.
- Coverage 2020Telephone interviews. 'Following the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, the face-to-face interviews of household members were replaced by telephone interviews. As from January 2023, face-to-face interviews have been resumed.' In 2020 the survey was carried out only in May, June, July, September, October and December.
- Coverage 2023Survey design from 2023: the Relative Development Index strata were redrawn on the 2022 Housing and Population Census 'such that each geographical district has four even strata', and the households selected in each sampling unit in Rodrigues rose from 10 to 15, the sample size unchanged.
Publication details
Statistics Mauritius
Labour force, Employment and Unemployment - Data/Historical Series (to 2025)
Table 1.5
Published 25 September 2026 · Retrieved 27 September 2026
Licence as supplied: Statistics Mauritius Copyright Notice (attribution), subject to the Government of Mauritius portal copyright notice
Adapted from data from Statistics Mauritius.
