DR Congo's national employment office now requires companies to obtain official approval before publishing job advertisements, under a ministerial order made public on March 16, 2026.

Signed on Oct. 9, 2025, by Employment and Labor Minister Ferdinand Massamba Wa Massamba, the order requires any company, organization, or public or private institution seeking to hire to have its job posting vetted by the Office national de l'emploi (ONEM) before it can be published.

The requirement also applies to agencies, media outlets, and platforms involved in publishing or distributing job postings.

Under the order, ONEM is responsible for verifying that job postings comply with legal standards before publication and for granting official approval to each listing.

The ministry said the measure aims to better organize the labor market in the Democratic Republic of Congo, strengthen transparency and oversight of job postings, improve national employment statistics, and combat fraudulent practices targeting job seekers.

The order sets out penalties for non-compliance. Any company, agency, media outlet, or platform that publishes a job posting without prior ONEM approval faces an administrative fine of $500 per posting, payable in Congolese francs.

ONEM is also tasked with monitoring compliance and collecting any fines imposed.

The order specifies that it took effect on the date of its signing, Oct. 9, 2025. ONEM's public communication on March 16, 2026, therefore marks the disclosure of a measure already legally in force.

The new requirement comes as ONEM has been expanding its role in organizing the labor market. In September 2025, a separate order signed by the same ministry raised the employer contribution to ONEM's funding from 0.2% to 0.5% of payroll.

That increase was intended to boost the institution's resources to support its core missions, including collecting and publishing job postings, placing job seekers, and producing labor market statistics.

Boaz Kabeya