Ghana’s Growth And The Missing Jobs

Youth are Ghana's greatest asset. They are the driving force in any economy and, if trained to their full potential, can play a vital role in the development of the country. But today, the majority of youth in Ghana do not have stable economic opportunities. According to the Ghana Labour Force Survey report published in 2016, more than 1.2 million Ghanaians are unemployed. According to the report, the total unemployment rate for Ghana is 11.9%; the rate is higher among females (12.5%) than males (11.1%).

The National Youth Policy of Ghana published in 2010 by the Ministry of Youth and Sports defined the youth as “persons who are within the age bracket of 15 and 35”. By this definition, 59.6% of the youth are employed while 12.1% are unemployed; the rest are not in the labour force.

Economic growth is supposed to stimulate employment, but, in a low employment intensity to growth economy like Ghana, unemployment is associated with economic growth. It is estimated by Aryeetey and Baah-Boateng (2016) that each 1% of economic growth translates into 0.5% growth in employment, with most new jobs created in the informal sector. These jobs are inadequate to meet the increasing number of labour market applicants.

Ghana discovered oil and gas in commercial quantities in 2007 and started exporting oil in 2010. By 2011, Ghana was one of the fastest-growing countries in the world, with GDP growth estimated at 15%. The country was elevated to lower middle-income status. Sadly, however, the rapid rate of growth did not benefit the largest share of the Ghanaian population, especially the unemployed.

Economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient measurement of human well-being. Human development puts people first and is a more embracing way to conceptualise development. The Human Development Index (HDI) tracks progress made by countries in improving longevity, basic education and minimal income. It indicates how governments are committed in the provision of access to important services such as healthcare, sanitation and education.

According to the UNDP Human Development Report (2016), Ghana's Human Development Index value stood at 0.579 in 2015. This is far below the global average value of 0.717. Ghana has not been able to create jobs to absorb the increasing number of youth and individuals with employable skills, but politicians and policy-makers constantly justify their performance or stewardship with economic growth figures.

One of the important questions to ask about a country's development is: What has been happening to unemployment? If unemployment has been increasing, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development. It will be difficult to call the result development, even if GDP per capita growth doubles.

A number of graduates coming from the universities, colleges, polytechnics and the senior high schools are not finding jobs. Some trained nurses are not getting postings after school. Many national service persons find themselves in a stalemate after school. It is time we measure our progress with the number of graduates who find decent employment.

Education is growing but the jobs are not there to absorb many of the graduates. Where do we progress from this conundrum? The agriculture sector has failed to attract graduates as expected. The mining sector is dominated by foreign partners. Manufacturing is not strong in Ghana. Oil production is unable to generate large-scale employment.

The consequences of youth unemployment in Ghana can be much more severe. Unemployment leads to poorer living conditions. Above all, youth unemployment leads to a failure to exploit one of the country's greatest assets for development: the existence of a large and growing population of talented young people.

Youth unemployment is a serious threat to national security. The problems in securing decent jobs after school may increase the vulnerability of young people to social evils and disorders. This has led to street hawking and the migration of youths across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean.

The youth may no longer feel motivated to work hard. Some of the young people and commentators argue that spending years and energies on the educational ladder is pointless. Many Ghanaians believe that looking for a job is not easy in Ghana: it's about who you know and the political party to which you belong, rather than your credentials or competence.

The role models of the youth are the “sakawa” fellows or the corrupt public officials who steal public funds to live in their lavish world. The implication is that future young people will resort to the wrong means of acquiring wealth, rather than furthering their education only to still be a dependent after graduation.

The first tool to deal with unemployment, is to establish a labour database to provide reliable information on unemployment numbers, vacancies and new job opportunities. There must be a conscious effort to plan to create jobs by coming up with targeted employment and labour-related plans, programmes and policies that will affect the employment situation at the national, regional and district levels.

In order to increase career opportunities, we need to complement formal degrees with job-centred skills. There must be revision to Ghana's educational system to resolve the skills mismatch. The private sector must be involved in planning the curriculum, and the curriculum development must conform to the skills and human resource needs of industry.

Entrepreneurship must be taught as a compulsory subject in our schools from basic to tertiary level. We have to establish collaborative programmes between industry and universities/polytechnics to increase opportunities for practical training and internship.

Registered companies and business entities in Ghana must be made to engage in compulsory internship for young people from the high school to tertiary level annually. Ghana needs a blend of thinking and skills to drive the country to meet the expectations of the 21st century knowledge and job economy.

We have to strengthen the Skills Training and Enterprise Programme and the National Youth Employment Programme to ensure that young people have increased access. The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training must be adequately resourced to provide more competency-based technical and vocational training.

There is a need to implement trade policies that create jobs, and support Ghanaian Small and Medium Enterprises and other enterprises to be globally competitive. We can also take advantage of knowledge-based jobs like research and the Information Technology industry.

Mr President, be determined in your zeal to work to secure the future of the young men and women in Ghana. Use the same energy and commitment for the introduction of free senior high school education to design and implement employment-maximising plans with a set of measures to improve the functioning of the labour market that are directed mainly at the unemployed. Use the vigour to create conducive environment to enable businesses and entrepreneurs grow, make profit and employ more people.