Ghana: Services sector records highest share of employed youth in Q1 who became unemployed in Q2 and Q3

The survey report which has been published on the GSS’s website focused on young people aged between 15 and 35. The aspect of the survey that focuses on labour highlights movement from one economic activity status to another between quarters. Transitions occur between employment, unemployment, and outside labour force and also between formality and informality, as well as different occupations and economic sectors.

According to the report, close to 11 million persons were employed across the three quarters of 2022, while about 1.76 million persons were unemployed in the third quarter, with the number of females as high as twice that of males.

The survey which is the first nationally representative high-frequency household panel survey, is 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.

“More persons employed in the Industry sector in Q1 (217,000) transitioned to other sectors relative to the Agriculture (117,000) and Services (182,000) sectors. The Agriculture sector absorbed a net of about 54,000 persons and Services more than 38,000 persons from the Industry sector across the three quarters. In Q3, the Agriculture sector maintained a net gain of more than 25,000 persons from the Services sector

Between Q1 and Q2, about 155,000 persons transitioned out of the formal to the informal employment sector in both Q2 and Q3. More than 89,000 employed persons in the informal sector in Q1, transitioned to and remained in the formal sector in Q2 and Q3,” the report said in part.

It also came to light thanks to the survey that the unemployment rate ranged between 13.4 and 13.9 percent across the three quarters and predominantly remained an urban phenomenon.

Across the quarters, the transition from informal employment to unemployment is on average five times more than the movement from formal employment into unemployment.

“Close to 7.5 million persons remained employed throughout the three quarters. For persons employed in both Q1 and Q2 (8.6 million), about 320,000 persons became unemployed in Q3. Out of about 810,000 persons employed in Q1 who became unemployed in Q2, close to 510,000 persons regained employment in Q3 while more than 110,000 remained unemployed.”

Meanwhile, some people who were unemployed in Q1 and Q2 gained employment in Q3, while others remained unemployed even in Q3.

“About 157,000 persons experienced an unemployment spell. Of the more than 377,000 persons who were unemployed in Q1 and Q2, close to 124,000 gained employment in Q3. Out of about 740,000 persons who were unemployed in Q1 and transitioned out of the labour force in Q2, about 190,000 gained employment, close to 280,000 became unemployed and a little above 270,000 remained outside the labour force in Q3. About 113,000 persons who were unemployed in Q1 and gained employment in Q2, became unemployed again in Q3.

“Almost 90,000 persons outside the labour force in Q1 transitioned to unemployment status in Q2 and remained unemployed in Q3. Among persons who were outside the labour force in Q1 and Q2, 364,000 were unemployed in Q3. About 570,000 persons gained employment in Q3 after remaining outside the labour force in the first two quarters.”

The report added that about 38 percent of persons outside the labour force in Q3 worked but did not receive pay or profit, with more than 10 percentage points variation across Q1 to Q3 and Q2 to Q3.

Read the full report here: https://www.scribd.com/document/642796951/GSS-report-on-unemployment-pdf#