Jobs or the Lack Thereof — “A Case of Political Gimmickry and Duplicity”

FORGIVE any of the social or political castes that you belong to, for when deprived and for too long of a means of income, they prove to be rather unreliable and bereft of solutions to help you surmount your troubles. Even if they feature prominently in such situation(s), the kind of support they are likely to muster to your relief is normally trifling. The exigencies of the situation in issue are the antitheses of poise and propriety, which by the way are essential traits every red-bleeding person must 'sport' in order to remain alive and viable. Thus, at this point optimism and industry mean same as nihilism and slothfulness.

For purpose of description and perhaps to précis, grammarians and economists, submit a number of words for our benefit: joblessness, redundancy, unemployment, e.tc. To this day, there is particular muddle over which one of the terms gives the most apt description of this phenomenon. Overwhelmingly simple to discern for many people I believe though, is its real-life influences and consequently, the lethality it forces on its unwary victims.

Obvious first is the seemly pecuniary impotence, which throttles victims' freedom to engage with others in an economic manner. Then there is the other chapter, which affects their social relations and general consciousness; feelings of shame and dejection usually come in at this point. Meanwhile, society using the weight of its tenets ensures that there is no lull for anyone enmeshed in this kind of predicament. It does this by foisting on people this whole notion of a naturally encouraged obligation to achieve personal contentment, a professed obligation that they must fulfill by any means in their lifetimes. This obligation in real terms you would agree with me, shares a basic connection to gainful employment and further, forms the basis upon which everyone's worth in society is adjudged. Gainful employment beckons success and in turn, approval from others whiles unemployment alas summons failure and disdain from others in the society. This narration depressing as it is, is not fictional or outdated but rather resonates with the story of many an unemployed youth globally.

The Ghanaian Case
As global as the subject of unemployment is, it has an even more devastating presence in third world economies amongst which Ghana sits. I do not have it in mind to delve into the enigmas surrounding unemployment statistics and/or its conceptual definitions. A lot of mind has ever since been devoted to that perspective to the degree that it threatens to become a boring issue for the silent majority of Ghanaians to deal with. I believe that whatever the figures suggest, it is already noticeable the scores of young adults whether skilled or unskilled, who ply the streets and corners of our cities and towns daily craving to secure for themselves any decent job. Jobs without which, it becomes challenging and insupportable for them to fend for their personal needs and those of their dependents, as the case may be. This is more critical I believe, since it may well be the case that when as a people we begin to count the cost or happen to discover to the hilt the profundity of the ghastly effects of this problem, then we would come to be agitated and implement the solutions, as we already know them.

Politics as Usual
Arresting the very eclectic problem of unemployment on far-reaching scales is not a task within the might of individuals. A cause of such immensity would require some extraneous hand wielding significant power and influence to spearhead the hoped-for interventions. Politics ideally is a very potent weapon in this regard. In any dominion, politics and political decisions affect every facet of economic life including employment, just to give a broader capture. Therefore, it is common to see issues concerning employment and politics coinciding on a number of fronts and by default, see employment matters suffusing well-nigh political discourses. Repeatedly, political parties brashly claim to have all the answers to address the problem of unemployment. They even take it another notch by capturing these so-called solutions in their respective manifestoes.

It is encouraging to know that it attracts attention at such levels and yet, that by itself is the bane of the matter. It typifies the level of compulsion normally assigned to the issue; it is left to fanciful ideas, talk and more talk. The ideas stay in print as it were, resting forever on the pages of these manifesto documents never to be animated. Hitherto, the issue does not receive the commensurate devotion from political parties and the governments they form when it comes to execution or action proper.

It is clear that, the two administrations that have presided over Ghana and her affairs since the advent of the fourth republic have both handled the problem of unemployment with slackness albeit the ways out abound in their respective manifestoes. In cases where they have actually acted, the interventions yielded only cosmetic effects and every so often aggravated matters.

The maddening aspect of this ensuing debacle is that, instead of employing well-timed solutions to tackle the issue all the parties find time for is gimmickry. Well, I guess that for them their proclivity towards greater deceptiveness is incessant and it is relatively by their judgment, the more beguiling assignment to pursue. What they sadly fail to observe in the intervening time is that, their actions or inactions do much to help issues of unemployment attract continuously a moot representative public image.

By now, we are all aware of how these political parties speedily make fetish of often petty or overrated issues and conveniently position them boldly within the public eye as though they are the germane issues needing recognition or attention. What's more, we see them go on to expend parsimoniously the taxpayer's money on items and activities sympathetic to such matters. Had only a minuscule of these efforts and resources been directed instead at arresting the wide unemployment gap, the situation would have been a different kettle of fish by now and perhaps the state of misery inflicted upon the unemployed Ghanaian youth today would have been absent.

The Way Forward
I think that the time is apt for governments regardless of the color of their garments to cease the bombast and the partial policies and advance towards executing seamless methodologies needed in solving the foregoing problem. Any such stride ought to be bold, comprehensive and innovative enough to address the countless nubby issues respecting this problem.

Real employment generation is a function of a myriad of interventions working together and we must as a country start appreciating this point even as an abstract proposition if we wish to see any radical improvements in our fortunes. Deliberate and sentient employment planning is an indispensible precondition for generating full employment. For Ghana's case and as is typical of any developing country, the most smarting question is how to create quickly millions of jobs for a massive number of unemployed people with limited purchasing power and limited capital for investment.

The argument over where to focus or where to commence in my humble opinion is superfluous. Evidence from global experiences confirms that creating such jobs under the auspices of the business sector or through parastatal organizations is not prudent. For any such drive to be successful, best regards must be given to self-employment and entrepreneurship, agriculture, agro-industry and small firms in the informal sector.

Self-employment
Statistics tells us that the self-employed represent about 48 per cent of the workforce in low-income economies. This must interest policy makers since the potential of self-employed persons and the small firms, which they establish for rapidly generating large numbers of new jobs, and raising productivity to increase incomes is well known. Japan's economic growth has relied heavily on the proliferation of small rural enterprises. Today, small and medium-sized firms employ 74 per cent of the Japanese workforce. China created 101 million jobs between 1985 and 1991, 70 percent in 'township and village enterprises', of which nearly half are privately owned. Concessions must be given to small businesses and governments must foster a general pro-business attitude. An appropriate mix of policies focusing on access to technology, training, credit, marketing and distribution channels can substantially accelerate self-employment, particularly in the informal sector and rural areas.

Agro-industry
Agriculture in most parts of the world is the largest employer among all the economic sectors. It will remain the largest single occupation for the near future. A shift in the starting principle however ought to be encouraged amongst planners in order to make the sector more viable within the context of job creation. Viewing the usefulness of agriculture purely within the perspective of a source of food production is fairly passé and does not favor employment generation. A conscious strategy linking agriculture to job creation is a more contemporaneous and positive approach. This is achievable through employing agriculture as a source of economic growth through a shift to high value commercial crops production supported by policy measures to upgrade technology, improve skills, raise productivity, ensure the supply of essential inputs, establish marketing and distribution channels, create linkages between agriculture and industry, and cater to export markets.

These actions frequently produce snowball effects i.e. economic growth, job creation, higher incomes and rural purchasing power, wider markets for produce, and the growth of downstream industries.

Small Firms
Regarding small enterprises, direct interventions and unfettered support would have to be engineered and provided from the state level and accordingly, decentralized with the intention of expanding access for the benefit of small businesses operating in very remote locations. The state can advance the lot of small enterprises by promoting policies to make technology, training, credit, marketing and distribution channels more easily accessible to small businesses. An equally significant measure would be the forging of linkages between universities, research institutes and small enterprises. The creation of micro-enterprise banks and credit unions specifically designed to cater to the needs of the self-employed and small firms can also be especially effective. There are a growing number of these institutions targeting clients that lack access to commercial lending institutions, providing unsubsidized loans, and achieving very low levels of default.

All of these propositions are very much on point save that, they do not speak much to the quality of the human resources required to man the processes and systems that will help in achieving their functionality. Absorbing new technology, raising productivity, improving the quality and competitiveness of agricultural produce all depend on the skills of the workforce. Unfortunately, training institutions and programs in most developing countries deliver only a tapered range and low level of skill acquisition to a small portion of the population.

The solution lies in improving skills to increase productivity by greatly expanding the lower tiers of the agricultural, craft, technical and vocational training systems at the local level to provide practical training in job-related skills to the satiate point. Additionally, we must assess and identify the missing links between supply and demand for skills at all levels and work to correct the imbalances in the system.

The problem of the educated unemployed across board is not so much the expanse of education they receive, but the type of knowledge and attitudes imparted. There must be a reorientation of the extant national educational curriculum at all stages, especially higher education to impart the knowledge and attitudes needed to promote self-employment and entrepreneurship rather than salaried employment.

Thankfully, workable and tested models are readily available and thus, we do not have to labor much searching for solutions. The achievements of the Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) of East Asia come into mind immediately. Although a blanket acceptance of these broad prescriptions or models is not advisable owing to the widely incongruent situations confronting different countries, a complete perusal of the thriving systems and traditions, which are amenable to adaptation in order to infuse local content will document the enormous untapped potential for stimulating faster economic and job growth.

We have the luxury of alternatives; we can invent, imitate or further improve existing systems. This must be the freedom or independence issue of our time because it truly threatens the very foundations of our existence. The youth of Ghana must arise and voice out their disappointments and shared discontentment strongly. We recently witnessed events within the Arabian Peninsula where young people fed up with the injustices perpetuated against them by their leaders rose, mobilized, marched and ousted what before then seemed unshakable and unrepentant oligarchies. May be not to achieve the same effects overall but governments from these parts must be made to feel the same pressure.

The era of employing deputations, long speeches and the likes to voice our frustrations and discontents I dare say is defunct, and can do much harm to the struggle that we serve even now. Besides, our governments have become immune to such tactics. The present developments therefore require the evolution of new forms of struggle, which will make it possible for us to strive for action on a more elevated and extensive level than these soft mechanisms often afford us.

Our political leaders must appreciate pensively that the youth of Ghana by these goes, are not asking for the unplumbed and/or the unfeasible but for what is well known, very much attainable and well within their rights to demand of their leaders.

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