The Head of Ghana Statistic Service (GSS) and Economist, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, has stated that discourses about Labor Statistics must focus on the relationship between different labor variables like absorption rate and training and education rates rather than focusing only on just the unemployment rate.

He disclosed that current statistics show that the three variables, unemployment, absorption, and training/education rates, are going in different directions. He stressed that the absorption rate has increased and so has the employment-to-population ratio.

“We saw that the youth not in education and training was also going down over the period which is also good. But we saw that unemployment was going up so it’s always important to look at different labor and variables…in the month of May, we will come up with a thematic brief on underemployment”.
Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim

Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim also indicated that the issue of underemployment is important because Ghana’s medium-term national development framework stresses the need to address the underutilization of labor in Ghana.

He mentioned that the GSS will collaborate with the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations to determine how the statistics gathered by the GSS will be useful to the Ministry in monitoring the nuances of labor statistics in Ghana.

Furthermore, the Economist declared that the labor conversation in Ghana should be moved from unemployment to key variables like Labor Transitions and Unemployment Spell.

He stated that what is often the case in Ghana is that, jobs are created now and then but people who are already in employment are moving from one job to another, a practice which has no bearing on the unemployment rate.

“That is why we are doing what we are calling the labor mobilities and it’s helping us follow the same people over a period of time…you clearly will see people who are employed move out of employment, went maybe outside the labor force later on got into unemployment re-entered the employment bracket”.
Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim

Accordingly, he argued that to understand the connection between policy interventions and labor statistics, unemployment must be discussed on a broader spectrum to derive the right statistics that will help monitor labor effectively.

He stressed that the unemployment spell variable, for instance, disclosed how consistently a group of people have not been employed and how long it takes for people to get employed in the labor force.

Solutions To Labor Deficit And Underemployment

Moreover, Dr. Annim revealed that out of 20,000 unemployed youth in Ghana in the last 21 months, about 4,565 of them are with a tertiary education. He stressed that the unemployed youth with tertiary education include HND, First Degree, and Master’s Degree holders.

He argued that with the proper use of administrative data, these identified unemployed people could be provided with the right interventions. He stressed the need to complement the administrative data by the government with the data provided by the GSS to provide a durable solution to issues of labor and unemployment.

Moreover, the Economist disclosed that the GSS has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations to undertake a qualification and skill mismatch survey which will help fill the skill and profession gap in Ghana’s labor system.

He emphasized that with the right procedures in place, the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations and the Ministry of Education will have a well-structured collaboration to correlate labor needs and shortfalls with education.

This he indicated, will solve the labor deficit and the problems of unemployment and underemployment in the country.

Additionally, Dr. Annim revealed that 440,000 people exited the labor force category. He mentioned that out of 440,000, 60% moved into the employment category and 40% moved into the unemployment category which shows that the population absorption rate has increased which can be interpreted as an increase in employment rate.

However, he stated that about two-thirds of the employed people are in vulnerable positions which means they can become unemployed at any given time. He argued that these indicators emphasize the need to broaden the spectrum of labor statistics to ensure proper interpretation of data on employment and unemployment in Ghana.

In conclusion, youth unemployment in Ghana has been an issue in Ghana over the years. While governments try to increase employment, internal factors like lack of resources and external factors like loan conditionality from international creditors continue to impede governments’ progress in creating jobs.

Each year a significant number of youth leave the country in search of jobs. In 2023, an estimated number of 4,000 nurses left the coast of Ghana in search of jobs in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.