Strong Economic Growth And Significant Reduction In Unemployment: The Critical Issues To Address In Ghana’s 2019 Budget [Occasional Paper 17]

 [Occasional Paper 17] Strong Economic Growth And Significant Reduction In Unemployment: The Critical Issues To Address In Ghana’s 2019 Budget

Unemployment has become the most serious challenge currently confronting Ghana. Indeed, the unemployment problem has reached a crisis point, given that the rate consistently increased over the most part of the last three decades, and stood at 11.9% at the end of 2015. The overwhelming majority of the unemployed are young people, aged between 15 and 34 years. Only 10% of graduates find jobs after their national service, and available statistics show that sometimes it takes up to 10 years for a large number of graduates to secure employment. Majority of the employed are in the private sector, of which about 90% are in the informal sector. The informal sector is known for its low productivity and very low incomes. The failure of Ghana’s economy to grow at appreciable rates in order to create jobs and improve incomes and livelihoods of Ghanaians has become a major concern.

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