The Minority in Parliament has questioned the new employment statistics put out by the Employment and Labour Relations Ministry.
Speaking to Citi News, the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises Committee, Richard Quashigah, demanded some clarity on the government’s figures.
“An army of young people are so unemployed, they are so desperate. They are looking for jobs they cannot get. So those conclusions are so not right. So where are these calculations from? What kind of research did honourable Baffour Awuah carry out to dangle these figures before us? They are so doubtful.”
Mr. Quashigah also rubbished the significance of the jobs created within the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The government said 611,397 new jobs have been created in the formal sector, 343,458 of which were employed in MDAs over the last two years.
But the MP retorted: “If you replace people within the ministries and you tell us that you have created jobs, you have virtually thrown sand into our eyes.”
The Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wireko-Brobbey had earlier defended the figures saying they were from Ghana Statistical Service metadata.
He also said there was substance to the jobs created in the civil service.
“[You cannot say] the Ministry of Transport is adding on when they recruit people from Metro Mass, Tema Shipyard, the DVLA… You cannot tell me that in the Interior Ministry for instance when we have the Ghana Police Service [recruiting people], we are adding on…It does not work that way.”
Among other notable figures, the government said the unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent.
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah during a presentation to the press on Thursday said about 800,000 people are currently unemployed in the country.
As far as the workforce is concerned, 11,058,357 people are noted as being employed currently and 1,143,275 persons are noted as “working for all use” or being volunteers.
The Planting for Food and Jobs project was the biggest contributor to employment with 1,539,000 new jobs created.