High Unemployment Rate In Ghana Causing Danger

By Justice Dzido On Jun 25, 2018

There is rising deep anxiety about the rapid increase in the rate of graduate unemployment in Ghana. The reality of the job market has sent many graduates back to school and the rest has been left to wonder how to get a foothold in the job market. The number of job openings and vacancies are minimal and one can only imagine the ratio of job applicants to job vacancies. Simply put, there are no jobs to apply to; the labour market supply of graduates has outgrown the labour demand.

The young graduate sits in his or her parent’s house wondering if it was worth obtaining a degree or diploma. They are confronted with thoughts about how to start their career life. The failure of many graduates to get jobs or create jobs for themselves is alarming.

Unemployment is the most growing national problem and poses a major security threat to our economy. As such, the high rates of unemployment in the country deserves a concerted attention of all stakeholders especially the government.

Recent headlines have been filled with dramatic differing views about what the causes and solutions are regarding the surge in graduate unemployment.

Not surprisingly, policymakers are confused about what the real issues are and what, possibly could be done about them. Ghana is not the only country battling with the rise in graduate unemployment.

Even before the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, many developed economies were struggling to maintain graduate employment and earnings

But rate at which people, particularly the youth in Ghana here faces austerity in the country is so shocking. We live in a country where your certificates doesn’t determine your success. We live in a country where your level of education doesn’t determine the job or professional you want to do. We also live in a country where if you don’t know someone or have protocol, the possibility of getting a job is curtailed.

Yet, the youth waste their precious time voting for new governments all because they need change but yet, they see no CHANGE in development of all sectors.

The very government they vote to place in power end up disappointing them. The Ghanaian youth of today see education as a total waste of time. Some no longer have the desire for education because it’s so disheartening to waste money and resources to gain the skills, knowledge and acquire work and also to depend on themselves but end up being jobless.

Gone are the days when the youth felt the need to educate themselves as a result of being inspired by the achievements of a graduate nurse or a police.

But now, the role models of most youths are scammers, people who use flashy cars among others. They resort to the fastest ways of acquiring wealth and their mentors are now the corrupt politicians.

The slogan, “education is the key to success” turns out to be untrue. One thing the government fail to understand as a country is that, the less concern we show to things like this causes most the bad deeds in our country facing today .

If I’m not mistakened, the president, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo once said, “The youth should create jobs for themselves instead of relying solely on the government” . But my question is, who is there to support them even if they put in their efforts? Where are the necessary resources to push them? We live in a society where if you don’t support yourself, no one will. And so how do they create their own jobs?

And one troubling issue is when the government has the opportunity to address the public on the issue of unemployment but fails to do so in a better way. The fact is, statistics on unemployment is critically lacking in Ghana.

If we had reliable data and institutions working to their maximum capability, the President or Minister of Education will have no responsibility to educate us on jobs being created.

Policymaking processes are usually decided on the basis of a rational assessment of data: Data provides insights, drives strategy, states the past, presents and predicts the future.

We need to raise our game as a country by providing accurate and reliable data, otherwise developing policies, finding remedies to economic challenges will be a herculean task.

The NPP government is indeed doing their best for the country but it is high time they also pay key attention on the youth and the increasing rate of unemployment in the country. I am just being a citizen and not a spectator.
God bless our homeland Ghana and make it great and strong.