Story By Felix Dela Klutse
Unemployment is one of the serious impediments to social progress in any nation. Apart from being a colossal waste of a country’s manpower resources, it generates welfare loss in terms of lower output thereby leading to lower income and well-being.
Currently, Ghana’s adult unemployment rate stands at about 20 per cent, while the youth unemployment rate, on the other hand is at 17 per cent, a Director of Youth Achievement Ghana who pleaded anonymity told this paper in Accra last Friday.
Last year, the World Factbook has said put the country’s unemployment figure at 20 per cent. The figure, according to Factbook was 11 per cent in 2000.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines unemployed as the numbers of the economically active population who are without work but available for and seeking work, including people who have lost their jobs and those who have voluntarily left work.
Ghana is endowed with enormous human and material resources but these resources have not been optimally utilized. Higher educational institutions in the country play crucial roles in generating the human capacities for leadership, management and technical expertise.
Unfortunately, Ghanaian employers normally complain about the quality of recent graduates while the graduates complain of lack of jobs.
These human resources have not been adequately channeled to profitable investments to bring about maximum economic benefits. As a result, Ghana has been bedeviled with unemployment and poverty. Ghana’s economic growth has not always been accompanied by decline in unemployment and poverty as one expected it to be.
It is actually not surprising that there are so many unemployed youths in Ghana though an environment conducive for employment has not been created by the government.
The protracted energy crisis in the country in 2007 has adversely affected the manufacturing sector. Among all the sectors of the economy, it is manufacturing that is the hardest hit. This is because the cost of running electricity generators increases the cost of production thereby making locally manufactured goods uncompetitive relative to imported products.
This has led to many companies closing shop because their products cannot compete with their imported counterparts. The situation has resulted in thousands of Ghanaians being thrown into the labour market.
Since it is not the duty of government to employ every employable individual, it has created an enabling environment for business to thrive. One would expect the private sector to use such an environment to create more jobs.
Besides manufacturing, agriculture is one sector that if properly developed and given the right policy mix, can suck thousands of youths out of unemployment. But instead of emphasis on agriculture, Ghana is importing food especially rice even when the country has the capacity to be a net exporter of food. Many unemployed people are not employable because they don’t have the requisite skills that can attract an employer.
Owing to the falling standard of education in the last few years, a number of companies are unwilling to employ fresh graduates of Ghanaian universities. Those that seek to recruit fresh graduates put in place measures to retrain them and bring them up to standard. Only few organisations can afford this extra cost.
The result is that some Ghanaian firms now advertise job vacancies on the internet for graduates trained in foreign universities to apply.
Government should also look into the quality of jobs provided. A situation where a university graduate is made to drive a tricycle, for instance, in the name of poverty alleviation calls for review. Where government provides jobs, it must be jobs that are sustainable, and not dehumanizing or demeaning.
A nation with majority of its youths unemployed is sitting on a keg of gun powder. Such unemployed people will ultimately become a menace to society as is currently the case.
Ghanaians are waiting for the new government promise of creating more jobs for the youth as stated in its manifesto.
Unemployment is one of the serious impediments to social progress in any nation. Apart from being a colossal waste of a country’s manpower resources, it generates welfare loss in terms of lower output thereby leading to lower income and well-being.
Currently, Ghana’s adult unemployment rate stands at about 20 per cent, while the youth unemployment rate, on the other hand is at 17 per cent, a Director of Youth Achievement Ghana who pleaded anonymity told this paper in Accra last Friday.
Last year, the World Factbook has said put the country’s unemployment figure at 20 per cent. The figure, according to Factbook was 11 per cent in 2000.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines unemployed as the numbers of the economically active population who are without work but available for and seeking work, including people who have lost their jobs and those who have voluntarily left work.
Ghana is endowed with enormous human and material resources but these resources have not been optimally utilized. Higher educational institutions in the country play crucial roles in generating the human capacities for leadership, management and technical expertise.
Unfortunately, Ghanaian employers normally complain about the quality of recent graduates while the graduates complain of lack of jobs.
These human resources have not been adequately channeled to profitable investments to bring about maximum economic benefits. As a result, Ghana has been bedeviled with unemployment and poverty. Ghana’s economic growth has not always been accompanied by decline in unemployment and poverty as one expected it to be.
It is actually not surprising that there are so many unemployed youths in Ghana though an environment conducive for employment has not been created by the government.
The protracted energy crisis in the country in 2007 has adversely affected the manufacturing sector. Among all the sectors of the economy, it is manufacturing that is the hardest hit. This is because the cost of running electricity generators increases the cost of production thereby making locally manufactured goods uncompetitive relative to imported products.
This has led to many companies closing shop because their products cannot compete with their imported counterparts. The situation has resulted in thousands of Ghanaians being thrown into the labour market.
Since it is not the duty of government to employ every employable individual, it has created an enabling environment for business to thrive. One would expect the private sector to use such an environment to create more jobs.
Besides manufacturing, agriculture is one sector that if properly developed and given the right policy mix, can suck thousands of youths out of unemployment. But instead of emphasis on agriculture, Ghana is importing food especially rice even when the country has the capacity to be a net exporter of food. Many unemployed people are not employable because they don’t have the requisite skills that can attract an employer.
Owing to the falling standard of education in the last few years, a number of companies are unwilling to employ fresh graduates of Ghanaian universities. Those that seek to recruit fresh graduates put in place measures to retrain them and bring them up to standard. Only few organisations can afford this extra cost.
The result is that some Ghanaian firms now advertise job vacancies on the internet for graduates trained in foreign universities to apply.
Government should also look into the quality of jobs provided. A situation where a university graduate is made to drive a tricycle, for instance, in the name of poverty alleviation calls for review. Where government provides jobs, it must be jobs that are sustainable, and not dehumanizing or demeaning.
A nation with majority of its youths unemployed is sitting on a keg of gun powder. Such unemployed people will ultimately become a menace to society as is currently the case.
Ghanaians are waiting for the new government promise of creating more jobs for the youth as stated in its manifesto.
E-mail: felixklutse@yahoo.com
Mobile: 0243226596
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