Abstract
This paper explores how key economic, demographic, social, and political variables influence labor employment in Western and Central Africa (WCA). Our analysis is based on the use of time series data, which spans from 1991 to 2020. These data were analyzed using simple ordinary least squares estimation. It was observed that economic variables accounted for about 76.81% of the total variation in labor force participation. The demographic indicators were observed to account for 96.31% of the total variation in labor force participation. For the social indicators, the variables account for 88.46% of the total variation in total unemployment. For the political indicators, the variables jointly explain 89.75% of the overall variation in total unemployment. The research concludes that the problem of labor employment within the WCA region can be solved by addressing economic vagaries, demographic explosion, and social and political change.