Companies are still struggling to weather the storms of the pandemic despite government’s attempts to revive businesses through its stimulus packages. As a result, companies’ demand for labor services is still below its pre-COVID-19 levels in the Ghanaian economy.

According to data from the Bank of Ghana, the number of jobs advertised in selected print and online media, which gauges labour demand in the economy, declined in the first quarter of 2021 relative to what was observed in the first quarter of 2020.

More specifically, a total of 8,840 job adverts were recorded in the first quarter of 2021 compared to 9,537 recorded in the first quarter of 2020. This represents a year-on-year decline of 7.3 percent. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Ghana attributed the decrease in the number of jobs advertised, year-on-year, to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses.

Nevertheless, the number of job vacancies advertised in the review period represents an improvement over the developments in the last quarter of 2020. According to the Bank of Ghana, job vacancies advertised in the first three months of the year, increased by 9.6 percent over the 8,067 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Sector Distribution

For clarity, Bank of Ghana detailed the sector distribution and skill set of job adverts recorded in the first quarter of 2021. With this, the Services Sector maintained its dominance as the leading job-providing sector in the economy, accounting for 83.1 percent of total job adverts recorded in Q1 2021. Despite the sector’s dominance, its share in total jobs advertised declined marginally by 0.01 percent from the 83.2 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2020.

Unsurprisingly, the Industry followed with a share of 13.5 percent, marginally down from the 13.6 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Sector, often described as the engine of growth, continues to record the least job adverts in the country. In the review period, the Agriculture Sector accounted for just 3.4 percent of job adverts compared to 3.2 percent of total job adverts recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020.

The above suggest that the distribution of job demand in the country perfectly reflects the contributions of these three sectors to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product.

Skill Set of Job Adverts

Furthermore, the analysis of the Ghanaian labor market conditions revealed that the main requirements for skilled employees were tertiary education qualification(s) with a minimum of three years’ working experience. This category, classified as Professionals and Technicians, collectively accounted for 55.2 percent of total jobs advertised during the first quarter of 2021. This is an improvement over the 51.2 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020.

This was followed by the categories classified as Sales & Other Service Workers which accounted for 28.1% in Q1 2021, a decline over the 32.4% recorded in Q1 2020. Artisans & Machine Operators also recorded an improvement as it increased to 8.6% in Q1 2021 compared to 7.8% recorded in Q1 2020, whilst Secretarial & Clerical Staff accounted for 6.1% in Q1 2021 same as the corresponding quarter a year ago. The ‘Others’ category of skill sets accounted for 2.0% in Q1 2021, a marginal decline from the 2.5% recorded in Q1 2020.