By Gloria Birungi Abwooli

Unemployment in Uganda will humble you. But will it humble you to trust God and know that He is in control, or will it rattle you into blaming national planning, the economy, and everyone else?

18 out of 100 young people were unemployed, according to the UBOS survey in 2025, with unemployment higher among females at 21% than among males at 15.2%. With the disruption and reduction of US foreign assistance and the effects on organizations working in sectors such as health and humanitarian work, many livelihoods have also felt the pressure.

I have been there…

Pressure compounds when you realise you are this statistic, counted among the unemployed. I have been there. It is possible to go on for two years, or even more, without an 8-to-5 job. I have been there. In this struggle for survival, there might not be a lot of support from friends; family understanding may be limited, and you may even blame yourself for not doing enough.

It is possible to send 80 applications, get five responses for interviews, make it to the end for three, and have no offer. These things happen. I have been there.

Kati, believer, in such a situation, a goinge wa? (What then should a believer do?)

Many a time, I have been told, ‘You need an ogamba no’gu ‘to survive such harsh realities. ‘ I have found myself asking, why does God allow seasons of what long-stretched unemployment, yet He blessed work and gave it as a tool to dominate the earth even before the fall of man?

I’m often puzzled by these questions. Like Asaph in Psalm 73, I’ve only found my rest when I looked to God and quit comparing myself to the ’employed. ‘Yet even when I have found a way of floating through this, the lessons have been priceless. Here are some I have learned throughout my season of unemployment. 

1. God is my only ‘gamba No’gu’

The thought of having no ogamba no’gu (highly placed social connections) is so stressful in a society where being connected is the norm. I have learned to embrace this Ugandan saying and rephrase it: “Indeed, God is my only gamba no’gu.

He has provided employment opportunities before, and he will again in his timing. I have quit counting how many applications and regrets I have registered. It is not my fault that some doors have remained closed. God knows. He sees, and at the right time He will open an opportunity for me with the skill set He gave me.

2. Counting my blessings more than money

To count your blessings is a blessing in itself. Seasons of unemployment can blind us to the past and present provisions and steal our joy and contentment. There are things I once took for granted because they came with employment. When those things stopped, I was forced to notice the other ways God had been providing all along.

I have learned to count my blessings of old more than the salary, per diem, and travels abroad that are no longer coming in. This helped me to see God’s blessed provisions.

Sometimes the blessing is not in the amount of money coming in. Sometimes the blessing is in the fact that, despite everything, you are still here, still sustained, still serving, still loving, still eager to work, still trusting God.

3. Out of employment, but not out of work

I had been trapped in thinking that work happened only when I was employed, and when unemployment came, I was helpless. Until I realised that I had so much gainful and consequential ‘work’ to do in God’s big kingdom.

It may not look like the normal 8-to-5. It may not attract the same salary. But it is still gainful work. I have devoted myself to serving in different ways: connecting with missionaries, supporting friends to plant a church, connecting with family, and using my graphic design skills to support the wider kingdom of God. I’ve done school drops and pickups to cover bills too. When I look back, God has provided for me through those hard stretches. It was still invaluable work during my formal unemployment time.

4. Don’t waste your unemployment.

If Paul was flogged, John beheaded, Hannah barren, and Jonah swallowed by a fish, what then should I expect in this 21st century as my share of taking part in Jesus’ suffering?

I have learned to see my hard season of unemployment as an opportunity for sanctification. I have resolved not to waste my unemployment. I take the painful days to God. I rest in the finished work of Christ and take rest. I make meaningful relational connections. I explore my options as long as time and budget allow.

I hold back from other plans because of budget constraints. I try not to invest my time in worrying since I can’t count the number of hairs on my head or even control tomorrow. I cast all my burdens to Jesus and desist from all fears, including the most dreaded fear of being ousted by the landlord, knowing that God is in control of all times, whether I am employed or not.

Unemployment has taught me that waiting is not necessarily wasted time. There can be work happening in me even when there is no formal work happening around me.

5. We are almost home. Keep hope alive.

I am still not giving up on applying and searching for ‘formal’ employment. Will this end? I don’t know. I will keep hope in God and trust. He will answer prayer.

Is man designed to chase this employment thing forever? Certainly not. We are designed to know God and enjoy him forever. Should our hope be only in the comforts that come from an 8-5 job? Surely not.

As I apply and wait for other jobs that God will bring, I hope in Him, who will come and take his workers home. He will say to them that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant, because you persevered through your unemployment.”

Oh, how I long to hear these words! How I long for heaven, where we will rest from all the torments that come with unemployment. My unemployment has an end here on earth and, ultimately, in eternity with Christ. Keep hope alive; we are almost home!

Gloria is a believer and a lover of missions, serving others through hospitality; a skilled communication expert with 10 years’ experience across multiple sectors, including climate change and humanitarian organisations, to name a few.