Private Sector Jobs Hits 208,620 in 2018

Government has revealed that more than 208,000 private sector jobs have been added in 2018.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said he culled the data from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), which collects pension contributions for employees within the formal sectors of the economy.

The data collected for the first 10 months shows an increase in formal jobs added in 2017 which is 197,000, the Minister said during his third major budget presentation in Parliament Thursday.

Reliable figures for jobs and joblessness in Ghana is difficult even though there is an entire bureaucracy for labour, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

Experts on the economy have observed, a lack of reliable data on unemployment in Ghana hampers development planning.

Admitting this challenge, the former investment banker and Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, said it is being resolved by resourcing the Ghana Statistical Service as well as the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

For example, the jobs registered at SSNIT could be new jobs or existing jobs that have been formalised in a country where the informal sector continues to hold significant and unharvested data.

The Ghana Statistical Service has put the country’s informal sector at about 62 percent.