The report which was released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicated that the estimated number of unemployed individuals and persons living in food-insecure households ranged from 250,000 in the third quarter to about 330,000 in the second quarter of 2022.
Speaking to Univers News in an exclusive interview, Mr. Gameh stated that the figures released by the GSS do not reflect totally the number of persons practically unemployed in reality as some persons who were regarded as employed were temporarily employed.
“…I can assure you that we have a lot, lot more millions that are unemployed in this country. The rest of the people are in some kind of vulnerable work, where it is an irregular type of work that they do, without social security and generally social protection…whatever figure that is being paraded by the political office holders that we have created jobs from about 2.1 million, I don’t think is true.”
“It might be true to the extent that those are people who work casually and are no longer in employment, these are people who have to be captured and have been captured as employed; as I am to define also, that you cannot say it’s a sustainable job if it’s a casual job, if it’s a temporary work and it’s not a sustainable temporary work. So clearly the being that is hanging on our necks and this country about unemployment is too huge.”
In response to the Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia’s claim during the cash disbursement for beneficiaries of the YOUSTART programme in Accra, that 2.1 million jobs have been created in the past 7 years by the Akuffo Addo-led administration, the labour expert explained that those jobs were clearly unsustainable, as they had subsequently rendered those persons currently unemployed.
“Well, you know when a political officeholder says they have created jobs, let’s say it is even true, NABCO (Nation Builders Corps), people are no longer in any sustainable employment. Therefore, you cannot capture it as employment per say. If you want to, then you have to be very accurate by saying that from a particular date to another, these hundred thousand people made up of NABCO workers are being employed then we can appreciate that. But if any official announces that there has been the creation of 2.1 million jobs, then those figures are not accurate.”
“We must let people understand that these are casual jobs. These are from this period to this period. These are temporary workers from this period to this period. What we need to do is to have a plan, I think Ghana is over 65 years old, we have to have a planned economy,” he added.
Below is the report released by the Ghana statistical service;
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Story by: Esther Esenam Ofori | univers.ug.edu.gh
