Dawdles round the job-centre in an African town (5)
I believe the answer is:
lagos
'an african town' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'dawdles round the job-centre in' is the wordplay.
'dawdles round' becomes 'lags' ('lag' can be a synonym of 'dawdle'. I am not sure about the 'round' bit.).
'centre' indicates the central letters.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
The central letter of 'job' is 'o'.
'lags' placed around 'o' is 'LAGOS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lagos that I've seen before include "Largest city and once capital of Nigeria" , "Formerly capital of Nigeria" , "Nigerian city and port" , "African port" , "city in Africa" .)