Improving employment opportunities in general, and particularly for youth is one of the major development challenges facing countries globally. While, the Ghanaian economy created a considerable number of jobs while increasing total labor productivity, especially between 2005 and 2012, this increase has not been sustainable.
Economic growth and job creation were accompanied by rapid urbanization and a gradual structural transformation of Ghana’s economy, as agricultural work has largely given way to services jobs. Further, since 1991, the populations of the two major cities, Accra and Kumasi, have more than doubled, gaining over 2.4 million inhabitants.
Quality of jobs also remains a major challenge as most jobs are in low-productivity self-employment activities that generate limited earnings. Wage employment is not a clear path to “decent” work and off farm “self-employment” became an attractive option in sectors such as transport, storage and communication services where earnings significantly increased during the past decade.
Most wage work outside of public sector employment is informal, offering little job security.
The private sector comprising non-household businesses needs to generate better jobs. Informal, mostly micro, younger establishments accounted for most of the new jobs (about 75 percent).
Based on the latest census estimates, non-household establishments (both formal and informal) created about 207,492 jobs in 2014: nine out of ten jobs were created in the services sector mostly in whole sale and retail, only 11 percent of jobs were created in the industry sector.
The commercial agriculture sector lags in terms of jobs creation. Critically, regional disparities in “good” jobs persist; Women have less access to productive jobs than men; and Youth are also less likely to have the better jobs and population growth puts more pressure with a bulge in young labor market entrants expected in the next five years.
While access to formal education has increased in Ghana, there are still challenges. Quality improvements are needed: half of grade 2 students are unable to read a single word. And there are debates about the skills qualifications of students in terms of employability, at both traditional secondary schools as well as those exiting from TVET institutions.
These and more are the challenges that Ghana faces concerning unemployment and underemployment. In recent years, the Government of Ghana has put in major efforts to address the unemployment situation, but it remains a major challenge.
There is the need to review national and international good practices, as well as provide suggestions for addressing the jobs challenge in Ghana.
