Economic growth in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region has been extremely rapid over the past two decades. Many indicators show that living conditions have improved, due largely to better access to healthcare, education, drinking water and lower infant mortality rates. However, the region still suffers from the highest poverty rates in the world. SSA recorded an increase of more than 100 million people living in extreme poverty in the space of twenty years. Substantial proportions of the population have been left out of the growth process.

This is relevant in DRC where recent economic growth has been accompanied by a contraction in employment. According to the structure of the country’s labor market, only two-thirds of the working-age population is employed. However, wage-earning employment represents only 16.6 percent of the employed population. Self-employment remains the most dominant form of employment, followed by unpaid work, which is concentrated in rural areas. These two latter forms of work employ 81.5 percent of the employed population, concentrated mainly in the agricultural sector. Consequently, employment is predominantly in the informal sector, which provides almost 88.6 percent of the total, including 59.7 percent in agricultural activities and 28.9 percent in the non-agricultural sector. Formal employment accounts for only 11.4 percent of the total, unevenly distributed between public administration (5.7 %), the parastatal sector (2.9 %) and the formal private sector (2.8 %).

Consequently, the public-sector remains the main provider of formal employment in the country. Most people seek public employment due to its perceived security as illustrated by the boom in civil servant recruitment in recent years, which rose from a few hundred thousand to nearly one and a half million employees in two decades.  In addition, government salary expenditure has risen sharply since 2002, and the state budget expanded from US$400 million to almost to ten billion. This has been accompanied by a change in salary structures with salary supplements becoming more important in the remuneration of civil servants. Unfortunately, this wage bill has been unequally distributed between the different categories of civil servants: it remains highly unequal between civil servants in Kinshasa and the provinces, and between civil servants in different administrations. As a result, many civil servants live in uncertainty, despite their job security.

This study explores how civil servants are remunerated, and what means they use to increase their revenues. How are pay practices leaving many civil servants on the economic and social margins?  Who are the most privileged civil servants, and how do they negotiate higher pay? Who are the most precarious civil servants, and how do they cope with this vulnerability? How is the possibility of public employment perceived? What do average people think about the ‘numéro matricule’ and a job with the state?

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