By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Ghana Statistical Service says about 1.76 million persons were unemployed following the publication and release of the 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) Third Quarter Labour Statistics report in Accra.
Presenting the key findings at a programme, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim said two out of every three unemployed persons were females, and “across the three quarters, about 157,000 persons experienced an unemployment spell i.e. they were unemployed in all the quarters”.
He said, close to 7.5 million persons remained employed throughout the three quarters out of the about 11 million persons employed in each quarter.
This indicates that across the three quarters, about 3.5 million persons were moving in and out of employment depicting vulnerabilities.
The next key finding was that the transition from informal employment to unemployment is on average five times more than from formal employment into unemployment.
Further, “two out of every three unemployed persons in Q3 that were employed in
Q1 were in vulnerable employment in the first quarter”, Prif added.
According to the report, “the population that is triple burdened i.e.simultaneously unemployed, food insecure and multidimensionally poor increased by almost 55,000 between Q2 and Q3”.
In his remarks, the Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wireko-Brobbey expressed the Government’s gratitude to GSS for continuously producing quality, reliable, and robust data to inform public and private policymaking and research.
He stated the Ministry was very interested in such quarterly labour statistics as it provided data to support the implementation of their mandate to ensure decent work for all in Ghana.
He added that “such data is crucial if the country wants to enhance the welfare of workers. Production of such data for policy making is in line with the country’s aim to achieve 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”.
Mr. Wireko-Bronney concluded with the hope that all stakeholders would continue to collaborate with GSS in carrying out their mandate.
The Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) is the first nationally representative high-frequency household panel survey in Ghana.
It is being conducted to obtain quarterly and annual data on household final consumption expenditure and a wide range of demographic, economic and welfare variables including statistics on labour, food security, multidimensional poverty, and health status for research, planning, and policy-making.
The report was released on Wednesday 3rd May 2023 at the Accra International Conference Centre. The program was chaired by Hon. Bright Wireko-Brobbey, the Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations.
