In the wake of job losses triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor –Awuah, says government is taking steps to minimize unemployment by creating some opportunities particularly for the youth.
According to him, plans are far advanced to engage the youth in Agric, services and manufacturing sectors.
Speaking at an AGI Joint Regional Webinar for six regions on the theme ‘Minimizing the impact of COVID-19 on job losses; building resistance and strategies, the Minister said government is determined to tackle the unemployment situation caused by the pandemic.
“The major pre-occupation of the government is to make sure that people who complete school or people that have reached the working age have access to work, and as I said per Ghana’s classification, work take places within the Agric sector, the manufacturing sector and then the services sector. As a responsible government what we do is that we create opportunities within all these areas to make sure that people are engaged.”
“That is why immediately after the assumption of office, his Excellency the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the planting for food and jobs. Because we have done the study with ILO and the conclusions are that if you want to provide quick job for the masses of people, it takes little investment to be able to get more people in the agriculture sector than perhaps in all other sectors of the economy.”
Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, several jobs have been lost, as many businesses have taken a hit.
Currently, people are already coping with the possibility of losing their jobs should the pandemic persist for a long time.
Earlier, the Trades Union Congress, TUC, appealed to government to inject about 18 billion cedis into the various sectors of the economy to help lessen expected job losses from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Growth rate not reflecting in jobs; Job creation must target critical areas – Prof. Baah-Boateng
According to the Head of the Economics Department at the University of Ghana, Prof. William Baah-Boateng, has expressed concern about the fact that Ghana’s economy is growing; but does not reflect on jobs, a phenomenon he terms as ‘Jobless Growth’.
According to him, job creation must be targeted at critical areas of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing and tourism which have the tendency to create ripple effects in the economy thereby creating more jobs.
He also expressed concern about the lack of data on unemployment as well as jobs available in the country.
Source: Citinewsroom
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