The Youth Employment Situation in Ghana

1
The Youth Employment Situation in Ghana

• Perspectives from a young campaigner
• Emmanuel Edudzie
• YES-Ghana

2
Definition of Youth

• United Nations persons aged between 15 and 24
  years
• AU persons aged between 15 and 35 years
  (African Youth Charter, 2006)
• Draft National Youth Policy persons aged
  between 15 and 35 years

3
Population of Youth

• Young people, 15-35 years, form about 26 of
  Ghanas population (Ref Draft National Youth
  Policy)
• The large youth population should not be seen as
  a problem. Ghana can take advantage of its large
  youth population to build or strengthen its human
  capital base for development.

4
Defining unemployment

• Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in the 1999 GLSS
  
• the proportion of the economically active
  population who are not working but are available
  for work (GSS, 2000).

5
Youth Unemployment

• Insufficient data on youth unemployment in Ghana
• Official statistics show unemployment rate of
  less than 10 (5.4 in 2003)
• Official statistics show underemployment is
  relatively high (13.6).

6
Unemployment by Age and Sex ()
Source Ghana 2003 Core Welfare Indicators
Questionnaire (CWIQ) Survey Report
7
Youth Unemployment

• Majority of the unemployed population fall in the
  15-29 age bracket.
• High unemployment among the youth is an
  indication of the underutilization of human
  capital resources in Ghana .

8
Factors affecting youth employment in Ghana

• Unemployment is an indication of the excess
  supply of labour over demand
• The agricultural sector remains unattractive to
  the youth, even though our economy is
  structurally agrarian the sector employs nearly
  half of all employed persons

9
Factors affecting youth employment in Ghana
(contd)

• Skills mismatches The Education system
  continues to produce graduates whose training and
  aspirations do not match the requirements of
  modern industry.
• Attempts to promote the growth of SMEs to absorb
  labour have not yielded the desired results due
  to several factors, including high interest rate,
  weak and unreliable infrastructure, etc

10
Factors affecting youth employment in Ghana -
specifics

• Employers find it difficult to hire young persons
  because of the lack of labour market experience.
• The youth find it very difficult to get their
  first jobs. Many of them get frustrated and stop
  looking for a job.
• Youth are the last hired, but first fired
• The Employability question! Some youth are just
  not employable.

11
Supply-side factors

• A very important factor contributing to the
  unemployment among the youth is the high rate of
  growth of the youth population
• It is estimated that about 250,000 young women
  and men enter the job market every year.
• The formal sector is able to employ less than
  5000 (2). Thus, close to 98 survive in the
  informal sector or remain unemployed.

12

• Responses to the Youth Unemployment Problem

13
Recent Employment creation initiatives at the
National Level

• ILO Decent Work Programme
• National Forest Plantation Programme
• Mass Cocoa Spraying Programme
• National Service Scheme Volunteer Programme
• National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP)
• Community-based initiatives by NGOs, etc

14
YES-Ghanas youth-led response
15
Career Development Programme (funded by the UNDP)

• State-of-the-art Career Resource Centre
• Skills Building Seminars
• Entrepreneurial training
• Career Guidance and Counseling
• Internship Placement Programme

16
Youth Policy engagements

• STEP (Skills Training and Employment Placement)
  Programme
• National Youth Policy
• YEN (Youth Employment Network)

17
General Recommendations

• Radical reform of education identify and train
  youth in employment generation sectors so we
  ensure that graduates meet the requirements of
  modern industry
• Training and retraining at the enterprise level.
• Radical review of our trade policies and
  practices shield our infant industries from
  unsustainable and unfair import liberalisation
• Review our investments code

18
General Recommendations (contd)

• Effective youth participation One of the
  serious problems with most of the youth
  employment policies and programmes has been the
  absence of inputs by youth themselves.
• (Adults plan and execute programmes for and on
  behalf of the youth, without taking into
  consideration their views and aspirations)
• Encourage Career Guidance and Counseling
  programmes for youth

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Specific Recommendation

• Ghana should join the Secretary Generals Youth
  Employment Network (YEN)
• To ensure a more pragmatic, long-term, cohesive
  and inclusive policy direction for youth
  employment in Ghana
• Youth themselves must drive the YEN process, with
  support from all relevant stakeholders

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Thank you!