Head of the economic Division at the institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) Dr. Charles Ackah has said Ghana is sitting on a time bomb due to the worsening graduate unemployment situation in the country.
This to him is because the current economic situation has drastically reduced both the government and the private sector’s capacity to employ people.
Currently, there are over 200,000 unemployed graduates in Ghana. In addition to that, over 71,000 will this year be pushed onto the job market from both private and public tertiary institutions.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News, Dr. Ackah insisted that one’s tendency to land a job is now highly decreased by higher education, hence his caution.
He said in the past, “unemployment was related to lack of education but now, that is not the situation.”
“Actually it is related to education. The more educated you are, the likely you are going to be unemployed. There is a gloom business for them, where are they going to get their jobs?” he questioned.
Dr Ackah said the only way they can get jobs is to “set up their own businesses” adding that most of them “are not interested in that.”
This he said is “because they think it’s difficult, they don’t have the requisite training, they don’t have access to capital, and they don’t have access to the support services. I think we are sitting on a time bomb but I hope the bomb doesn’t actually explode because when you talk to people they are really frustrated.”
In a related development, the Ghana Employers’ Associations had said that close to 13,000 workers were rendered jobless after they were sacked in the first quarter of 20105 alone.
Meanwhile, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned that unemployment will continue to rise in the coming years, as the global economy enters a new period combining slower growth, widening inequalities and turbulence.
