Unemployment Is On the Decline - Employment Minister

The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Mr. Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has announced that 611,397 new jobs have been created in the formal sector resulting in a decline in unemployment.

According to him, the increase is as a result of the numerous flagship policies introduced by the government as captured in the Coordinated Programmes for Economic and Social Development Policies (2017-2024) and the National Medium-Term Development Framework (2018-2021).

Taking his turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra on Thursday, the Minister said out of the 611,397 new jobs created, the Ministries, Departments and Agency employed 343,458 while 267,939 has been absorbed by the private sector.

Mr. Baffour Awuah noted that the services sector constituted a major source of employment accounting for 49 percent -- 19 percent in trade and 30 percent in other services.

This is followed by agriculture, 38 percent and industry, 13 percent, which comprises 8 percent manufacturing and 5 percent for other industries.

The Minister explained that the working-age population is estimated at 17.6 million. Out of this, 11.06 million people, representing 63 percent are in different types and forms of employment.

"Of the 11.06 million people in employment, about 29.2 percent are in paid employment, 53.2 percent in self-employment while 16.9 percent are contributing family workers. The remaining 0.9 percent constitute other forms of employment such as domestic work.

"A total of 1.14 million people, representing about 6 percent are working voluntarily and therefore not considered to be in employment as per the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition of employment. The remaining 5.36 million people are not working because of schooling, incapacitation, domestic activities, seeking employment or are discouraged," the Minister stated.

He also mentioned that the informal economy continued to dominate the Labour Market such that 85 percent of employment is in the informal sector with the formal sector accounting for the remaining 15 percent of which 7 percent are in the public sector and 8 percent in private formal sector.

On pension and related issues, Mr. Baffour Awuah announced that GH?3.1 billion has been transferred into the custodian account of the various Public Sector Registered Pension Schemes following the President's directive on May Day this year.

The schemes are the Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme, Health Sector Occupational Pension Scheme, Judicial Service Occupational Pension Scheme, Hedge Master Trust Occupational Pension Scheme and Public Sector Workers Employees' Pension Scheme.

He further assured that serious attention has been given to matters of pension to facilitate the smooth and efficient payment of the Tier 2 Pension Beneficiaries from 2020 while efforts are being expedited to bring all matters arising out of the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) transfers including data reconciliations of beneficiaries and the issue of Past Credit to logical conclusion.

Source: ISD (Juliana Benefo Akyea and Patricia Naa Anani)

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