A study by the Ghana Statistics Service (GSS) has revealed that highly educated Ghanaians are unable to find work despite being able to work.
During the 21-month period from January 2022 to September 2023, almost a quarter (22.3%) of those who experienced a period of unemployment completed tertiary education, and almost 48% of those who experienced a period of unemployment completed secondary school. He had completed his education.
GSS research defines unemployment as a period of continuous unemployment despite the ability and desire to work.
Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, released the labor statistics contained in Ghana’s 2023 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) Third Quarter Labor Statistics Bulletin in Accra yesterday.
He said that from the first quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023, approximately 200,000 people experienced periods of at least 12 months of unemployment.
The largest number were women: 11,540, 18,086 in urban areas, 9,987 with secondary education, and 9,341 between the ages of 15 and 24.
Professor Annim said the study tracked people who were unemployed for two quarters, or six months, from the second quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2023.
We also tracked people who were unemployed for nine months from Q1 2023 to Q3 2023, and those who were unemployed for 21 months from Q1 2022 to Q3 2023.
The survey found that around 1.3 million people in the country will be unemployed for six months, or the second and third quarters of 2023, the government statistician said.
“This number will decrease to approximately 752,000 people who are not employed as of the third quarter of 2023.
“From the last quarter of 2022 to the end of the last quarter of 2023, 191,000 people remained unemployed,” he noted.
investigation
AHIES is Japan’s first nationally representative high-frequency household panel survey.
The 2023 Q3 Survey provides quarterly information on key labor statistics for seven quarters from Q1 2022 to Q3 2023.
Demographics were categorized by gender, area type, region, and selected sociodemographic characteristics.
youth unemployment
Professor Annim said the unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 35 was 1.3 million, accounting for more than three-quarters of the country’s total unemployment rate of 1.85 million people.
“Research shows that the population that needs to be considered when it comes to youth employment is around 1.3 million people.
“This figure represents a 14.6 percent increase in the first three quarters of 2022 compared to the first three quarters of 2023,” he said.
Professor Annim stressed that policy makers must pay attention to that category of people.
He said if the government were to make any intervention, those would be the people it would target.
“So if there was a commitment to employ 200,000 young people, these numbers should tell you how long it would take for the country to eliminate 1.3 million youth unemployment.” said.
Unemployment rate
Professor Annim said the year-on-year increase in the unemployment rate was highest in the Western region, equivalent to 7.8%. Accra metropolitan area accounts for 5% and northeastern area accounts for 3.7%.
The regions with the highest year-on-year declines in unemployment rates were the North with -6.3%, Savannah with -2.9% and Bono East with -2.9%.
Professor Annim said the issue of unemployment needed to be tackled differently across the administrative regions, especially in the Accra Metropolitan Region and the Ashanti Region as they were the only two regions to consistently record unemployment rates above the national average during the seven quarters of the survey. He said there is. .
The number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) increased by 3.6 percentage points from the second quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2023, reversing the downward trend of the previous four quarters.
Labor migration statistics from Q4 2022 to Q3 2023 show that of the 530,000 people who moved from employment to unemployment between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, more than half (28 It shows that 10,000,000 people remain unemployed. In the second quarter of 2023.
Approximately 440,000 people joined the workforce between Q1 2023 and Q3 2023, of which 60 percent, or more than 240,000, were hired during this period.
Ensuring decent work
Mr George Amoah, Director-General for Research, Statistics and Information Management at the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations (MELR), said the government relied on such statistics for planning purposes.
The ministry said it would consider how best to use the report for the country’s benefit, particularly ensuring decent work for its citizens.
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