The election is due to be held in either October or November and Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, is likely to come up against rivals including George Weah, the ex-soccer star who took her to a run-off in 2005.
Opponents say Africa’s first elected female head of state is too old to run for a new term and has not done enough to stamp out corruption in a country courted by multinationals for its rich mineral reserves and recent oil finds.
“I am confident that I will win the elections,” she told Reuters during celebrations of the anniversary of Liberia’s 1847 founding as an independent state.
“I will continue with employment policies. That is why most of the time we encourage private investment. Job opportunities are what we will continue to do,” she said in Lofa county, by the border with Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Meaningful figures on employment are hard to come by in West African economies with large informal sectors. However supporters of Johnson-Sirleaf say her government has brought the
unemployment rate down from the 75-80 percent jobless rate common among many of its neighbours to around 55 percent.
Lofa County saw some of the worst fighting in two decades of nearly non-stop civil war that ended in 2003.