The quarterly labour force statistics bulletin for the first three-quarters of 2023 released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has indicated that year-on-year increase in the unemployment rate was highest in the Western (7.8%), Greater Accra (5.0%), and North East (3.7%) regions.
It said the regions that recorded the highest year-on-year decline in unemployment rates were Northern (-6.3%), Savannah (-2.9%), and Bono East (-2.9%).
“This highlights the need to address unemployment issues differently across the administrative regions, especially in Greater Accra and Ashanti, the only two regions to consistently record unemployment rates higher than the national average during the seven quarters.
“Greater Accra is also the only region that consistently recorded a youth not in employment, education, or training, rate higher than the national average in all quarters,” the report said.
It further indicated that persons with tertiary education constitute almost a quarter of persons who experienced an unemployment spell of more than 20 months.
The report said almost a quarter (22.3%) of persons who experienced an unemployment spell from the first quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023 had completed tertiary education.
The GSS explained the unemployment spell as an uninterrupted period within which a person has stayed unemployed.
Almost half, representing 48.8% of persons experiencing an unemployment spell over the 21-month period had completed secondary education., the report said.
These figures represent 4,565 and 9,987 persons with tertiary and secondary education respectively, who experienced an employment spell over the seven quarters.
These statistics are presented in the Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey: Quarter 3 2023 Labour Statistics Bulletin which was released on Wednesday 21st February 2024.
The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, made a presentation on Wednesday, February 21 on the highlights from the bulletin and concluded between 2022 Q1 and 2023 Q3, the absorption rate (employment-to-population ratio) increased, NEET reduced, and unemployment recorded an upward trend.
“This calls for an assessment of the preparedness of persons entering the labour force and labour transitions across different economic activity statuses,” he said.
He highlighted that interventions on employment targeting periods during education and the distinction between work and employment should be prioritised. On average, more than three-quarters (77.4%) of the total unemployed persons comprised youth aged 15 to 35 years (1,374,329) in the first three quarters of 2023. Youth not in employment, education, or training increased by 3.6 percentage points between quarters 2 and 3 in 2023, reversing a downward trend in the previous four quarters.
Labour transitions especially exits out of employment status and their re-exits should underscore conversations on job creation: Statistics on labour mobility from 2022 Q4 to 2023 Q3) which are presented in the bulletin indicate that among the 530,000 persons who transitioned from employment to unemployment status, between 2022 Q4 and 2023 Q1, more than half (280,000) remained unemployed in 2023 Q2. For the 540,000 persons who transitioned from outside the labour force to unemployment status, between 2022 Q4 and 2023 Q1, 410,000 (about three in every four) remained unemployed in 2023 Q2.
Strengthen and use administrative data to tackle unemployment spells and labour transitions. Almost 200,000 persons experienced an unemployment spell of at least 12 months between 2022 Q1 and 2023 Q3.
“The Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) is the first nationally representative high-frequency household panel survey in Ghana. The 2023 Third Quarter Labour Statistics Bulletin provides quarterly statistics on key labour statistics forseven quarters from the first quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023. The statistics in the bulletin are disaggregated by sex, type of locality, region, and selected sociodemographic characteristics,” the report said.