According to a recent study conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), a significant number of educated Ghanaians are struggling to find employment opportunities.
The study revealed that during the 21 months from January 2022 to September 2023, approximately 22.3% of individuals who experienced unemployment had completed tertiary education, while nearly 48% had completed secondary education. The GSS defined an unemployment spell as a continuous period in which a person remained unemployed despite having the skills and willingness to work.
During the first quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2023, around 200,000 individuals experienced an unemployment spell for at least 12 months.
This issue was particularly prevalent among females, with 11,540 individuals affected. Additionally, urban areas saw a significant number of unemployed individuals, totaling 18,086. Among those affected, 9,987 had completed secondary education, and 9,341 were between the ages of 15 and 24.
Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the government statistician, presented these labour statistics during the release of the Ghana 2023 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) quarter three labour statistics bulletin in Accra.
The survey tracked individuals who had been unemployed for various periods, including two quarters (six months) between the second and third quarters of 2023, nine months from the first quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2023, and 21 months from the first quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.
The survey also revealed that approximately 1.3 million people in the country remained unemployed for six months during the second and third quarters of 2023. This highlights the pressing need for effective measures to address the unemployment crisis and create more job opportunities for educated Ghanaians.
“This number reduces to about 752,000 persons who as at the third quarter of 2023 had not been employed. From the last quarter of 2022 to the end of the last quarter of 2023 were 191,000 persons who remained unemployed,” he indicated.
Prof. Annim highlighted that the Western Region had the highest year-on-year increase in unemployment rate at 7.8 per cent, followed by Greater Accra at five per cent, and North East at 3.7 per cent. On the other hand, the Northern Region experienced the highest year-on-year decline in unemployment rate at negative 6.3 per cent, followed by Savannah and Bono East at negative 2.9 per cent each.
Prof. Annim emphasized the importance of addressing unemployment challenges differently across administrative regions, particularly in Greater Accra and Ashanti, as they consistently reported higher unemployment rates than the national average over seven quarters.
The number of youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET) rose by 3.6 percentage points between the second and third quarters of 2023, marking a shift from the previous downward trend.
Data on labour mobility from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023 revealed that out of 530,000 individuals who moved from employment to unemployment status between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, over half (280,000) remained unemployed in the second quarter of 2023.
Additionally, approximately 440,000 individuals entered the labour force between the first quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2023, with more than 240,000 individuals (60 per cent) finding employment during that period.
