334. Accompanyinq the structural change in production, there has been anintersectoral shlft in the labour force of the developing countries of Africa, asshown in Table 61 below. The percentaEe of the labour force in agriculturedeclined from 80 per cent tn 1960 to 59 per cent in 1979 (the last year for thichdata are available). Horrever, the percentage of the labour force employed inindustry almost doubled over the same period, rising from 2.5 per cent in 1960 tor3.4 per cent in L979. However, since the number of industriar jobs in Africa wasrelatively small at the beginning of the period, even a doubling of the Africanrabour force in industry by l9?9 meant that the actual number of industrial jobscreated has fallen far short of the very large increase in the urban rabour forcedue !o population grorrth and rural-urban migration. As a result, flNost of theincrease in the urban labour force in Africa over this period found onry precarrous employment in the informal service sector.A/ 40/sI9 Eng 1i sh Page I74 Table 61. Structure of the labour countries of Africa (Percentaqe)force in developing Year AgriculEu re IndustrY services 1960 197980.0 69.0 r3.4t2.6 Source: Econonic Conmission for Africa, Survey of Ecgr-lgmic and social condilions in lfrica, (Addis Ababa, March 1984) p' 119' 335. As with food production, total aqricultural output gre!' aE an annual rate of only about 2 per cenl as opposed to annual populacion grovreh of over 3 per cent' thus leading to a decline in per capita outPut of over 1 per cent annually over the past ouarter of a century. Since nore than cwo tbirds of lhe population lives off the land, the poor perfornance of this seccor neant a Poor perfornance for the African econonj.es as a whore. This was the re'sult of the convergence of a nurnber of internal and external forces, including poor pricing policies and neglect of agriculcure by Ehe African nations thernselves, recurrent droughts, and sluggish demand j.n developing narkets for the agricultural exports (mostl9 Primary conmodities) of the African countries. Thus, serious constraints, both on the supply and demand side, have operated in agriculture in Africa alnost uointerruptedly over the past tg,o decades' 336- specifically, tbe prices received by farmers I'ere kept artificially roh' and failed to keep up with ttle prices of the inpucs farners had to purchaset farm support programnes for tecbnological advice, extension services, narkecing and storage facilities were grossly inadeouate or even counterproduc c ive ' and tdhile agriculture employed over tno thirds of the labour force and contlibuted over ohe
**Analysis**
The text discusses the structural changes in the labour force and agricultural sector in developing countries of Africa, highlighting the decline in agricultural output, the shift in employment from agriculture to industry, and the constraints faced by the agricultural sector. The text also mentions the impact of these changes on the economy and the population.

**Category**
Economic development, Agriculture, forestry and fishing, Employment