The Ghana statistical service has indicated that the country’s unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 11.5%, the lowest recorded across all quarters in 2022.
Unemployment rate for the first three quarters of 2022 were, 13.4%, 13.9% & 13.7% respectively but reduced to 11.5% in quarter four according to data in the “Ghana Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey: Quarter 4 2022 Labour Statistics Report.”
The report also reveals fourth quarter unemployment rates are higher for females (12.5%) compared to males (10.3%); and higher in urban areas (14.3%) compared to rural (7.8%), patterns consistent with what was observed for the previous three quarters.
Per the report, from the first quarter to the fourth quarter of 2022, although unemployed persons reduced from 1,729,383 to 1,445,850 and number of employed persons dropped marginally from 11,215,323 to 11,148,465, the number of persons outside the labour force jumped from 5,870,759 to 6,440,112.
The report also adds that two in every three (68.1%) employed persons 15 years and older in the fourth quarter were in vulnerable employment (i.e. self-employed without employees or contributing family workers), the highest recorded across all quarters, with all regions except for Greater Accra having more than half of the employed persons in vulnerable employment.
The highest rates of vulnerable employment in the fourth quarter were recorded in the North East (92.1%), Savannah (90.6%), and Northern (84.2%) regions.
The report also reveals that, over 2.1 million persons aged 15 to 35 years were not in education, employment, or training (NEET) across all quarters. In the fourth quarter, one in every five persons (20.2%) aged 15 to 35 years was NEET.
Greater Accra recorded the highest NEET rate (26.5%) in the fourth quarter followed by the Ashanti (22.9%) and Upper East (22.9%) regions. All 16 regions recorded double-digit figures for youth NEET in all quarters with the lowest recorded in Oti in the fourth quarter (11.2%).
On the relation between unemployment, food security and multidimensional poverty, at least a quarter of a million persons were unemployed and living in food insecure households in all four quarters of 2022, the estimated number of unemployed and food insecure persons in the labour force ranging from 250,000 in the third quarter to 330,000 in the second.
The report also indicates that over half a million persons in the labour force were unemployed and multidimensionally poor in every quarter of 2022, ranging from an estimated 550,000 in the fourth quarter to 780,000 in the first quarter.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Edem Kojo
