According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), there were around 1.76 million unemployed people in the third quarter of 2022.
According to the GSS, among this cohort, women made up two out of every three unemployed people.
About 157,000 people, or one quarter’s worth of unemployment, were unemployed over the course of the three quarters.
Out of the approximately 11 million people employed during each quarter, only 7.5 million continued to be employed over the course of the three quarters. This shows that throughout the course of the three quarters, roughly 3.5 million people changed jobs, revealing vulnerabilities.
This was included in the Third Quarter Labor Statistics for the Ghana 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES), which the GSS released on Wednesday, May 3.
The report stated that the transition from informal employment to unemployment is typically five times greater than the transition from formal work to unemployment.
Find the complete report below.
Third Quarter Labor Statistics from the Ghana 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) have been issued by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
On May 3, 2023, at the Accra International Conference Centre, the report was made public.
Hon. Bright Wireko-Brobbey, the Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations, presided over the event.
Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the government statistician, gave a presentation on the report’s highlights. These statistics covered the state of the economy, employment, the unemployment rate, youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), and labor mobility across quarters, specifically movements in and out of employment, as well as across economic sectors (agriculture, industry, and services).
Prof. Annim offered five main points for reflection as he wrapped up his lecture.
The first was that, as of the third quarter of 2022, 1.76 million people were unemployed. Two out of every three unemployed people in this population were women.
About 157,000 people, or one quarter’s worth of unemployment, were unemployed over the course of the three quarters.
Out of the approximately 11 million people employed during each quarter, only 7.5 million continued to be employed over the course of the three quarters.
This shows that throughout the course of the three quarters, roughly 3.5 million people changed jobs, revealing vulnerabilities.
The move from informal employment to unemployment is, on average, five times more frequent than the shift from formal employment to unemployment, according to the next important study.
In addition, two out of every three people who were employed in Q1 but are now unemployed in Q3 had precarious jobs in the first quarter.
Last but not least, between Q2 and Q3, the population that is triple burdened—that is, concurrently unemployed, food insecure, and multidimensionally poor—rose by over 55,000.
In his remarks, Hon. Wireko-Brobbey acknowledged the government’s appreciation to GSS for consistently supplying high-quality, trustworthy, and dependable statistics to support both public and private policymaking and research.
According to him, the Ministry is highly interested in these quarterly labor statistics because they provide information to help with the execution of their responsibility to guarantee adequate employment for all Ghanaians. Such information, he continued, is essential if the nation wishes to improve worker welfare.
Creating such data for policymaking, he pointed out, is consistent with the country’s goal of achieving the SDGs, particularly SDG 8 on decent work and productive employment, the AU Agenda 2063, and the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies, 2017–2024: An Agenda for Jobs: Creating Prosperity and Equal Opportunity for All.
He ended by expressing the hope that all parties will continue to work with GSS to fulfill their mission.
The first nationally representative high-frequency household panel survey in Ghana is called the Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES).
For research, planning, and policy-making purposes, it is being done to collect quarterly and annual data on household final consumption expenditures as well as a wide range of demographic, economic, and welfare indicators, including information on labor, food security, multidimensional poverty, and health status.