Businesses are gradually overcoming the difficulties of the pandemic as companies’ demand for labor services in the Ghanaian economy show signs of a rebound, a relief for job seekers in the country.

According to a recent report on real sector developments by the Bank of Ghana, the number of jobs advertised in selected print and online media, which partially gauges labor demand in the economy, increased in August 2021 relative to August 2020.

The BoG stated that, in total, 4,051 job adverts were recorded in August 2021 as compared with 2,352 for the same period in 2020, indicating a year-on-year growth of 72.2 percent.

On a month-on-month basis, the Central Bank disclosed that the number of job vacancies in August 2021 increased by 47.3 percent as compared to July 2021. This was a significant improvement over a marginal increment of 0.6% recorded in June 2021 when the previous survey was conducted.

“The rise in the number of jobs advertised reflected businesses’ gradual recovery from the adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Cumulatively, 23,892 advertised jobs were recorded for the first eight months of 2021, compared with 23,901 jobs advertised during the same period in 2020”.
Bank of Ghana

Pandemic-induced effect on businesses

Data for the first half of the year show that job adverts have declined significantly but the recent report show much optimism for labor demand which is likely to reduce the high unemployment rate in the country. The last report from the BoG indicated that a total of 2,730 job adverts were recorded in June 2021 compared to 3,079 recorded in the same period in 2020, a year-on-year decline of 11.3 percent.

A Quarterly bulletin from the BoG, also revealed that demand for labor services was sluggish in the first and second quarters of the year as businesses struggled to weather the storms of the pandemic. The Bank of Ghana stated in its earlier report that job adverts declined by 7.3% in Q1 2021. The situation got even worse in Q2 2021 as total job adverts declined to 8,251 from 9,582 recorded in the second quarter of 2020, a year-on-year decline of 13.9 percent.

The Central Bank of Ghana attributed the earlier decrease in the number of jobs advertised to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses.

Improvement in working conditions

The recent improvements in demand for labor comes along with a corresponding improvement in employment conditions of workers in the country. This is because the total number of private sector SSNIT contributors, which partially gauges employment conditions, improved to 833,069 in July 2021 compared with 702,826 for the same period in 2020. This represents a year-on-year improvement of 18.5 percent.

Cumulatively, the Bank of Ghana indicated that in the first seven months of 2021, the total number of private sector contributors increased by 9.7 percent to 5,864,616, up from 5,347,670 recorded over the corresponding period in 2020.

The recent report also suggests that employment conditions of private sector workers continue to improve along with the gradual recovery underway which is driving labor demand. An earlier BoG report stated that for the first five months of 2021, the total number of private sector contributors increased by 3.8 percent to 4,087,134 compared to 3,937,022 recorded over the corresponding period in 2020.

The recent developments in the Ghanaian labor market raise much optimism as it depicts a gradual recovery that comes along with job creation and improvement in working conditions of workers.