GHANA ' S JOBLESS GENERATION
people’ s education, health and protection of their rights.
The main losers
Young people have been the main losers of the Great Recession caused by the 2008 global financial crisis. Millions have been pushed into highly unstable jobs, condemned to indefinite unemployment, or forced to move abroad in search of better opportunities. I have lost count of the number of unemployed youth or graduate unemployed associations, the number of trained health workers associations who have completed various health training institutions and have been waiting for their main employer-the state( government) to employ them. I have also lost count of the number of demonstrations by youth groups across the country demanding their rights to be employed and to fully participate in economic, social and political life of their country.
The net result is that over the last few weeks Ghana has come under the microscope for what can best be described as human trafficking, rather than organised international migration. This column reported a few weeks ago that due to less opportunities to get jobs at home, droves of Ghanaian youth are leaving the country, even to less friendly countries like Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. It is estimated that more than 1000 Ghanaian youth have been languishing under inhumane conditions in these countries after they were promised lucrative jobs. Their hopes of earning good salaries turned into nightmares after they landed in the hands employment sharks.
As Jean Pisani-Ferry of France Stratégie, a French government advisory body, points out, it is“ much worse to be young today than it was a quarter-century ago.” Indeed so. The International Labor Organization estimates that, worldwide, 73 million people aged 16-24 were unemployed in 2014. That number has fallen from 76.6 million in 2009, when the impact of the 2008 crisis was still fresh; but the pace of improvement is not exactly encouraging. Simply put, around 45 % of the world’ s economically active young people are either unemployed or are living in poverty, despite having a job. And, given inadequate statistical reporting in many poor countries like Ghana, where populations tend to be younger, these figures almost certainly underestimate the severity of youth joblessness.
Global phenomenon
The economic plight of young people is a global phenomenon. Arguably the most worrying aspect of the economic environment for young people today is how little it has improved since global economic crisis. In Ghana for instance, a high degree of youth marginalization( in education, employment, participation and empowerment) is depriving our economy of its most powerful growth engine-the youth.
THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION ESTIMATES THAT, WORLDWIDE, 73 MILLION PEOPLE AGED 16-24 WERE UNEMPLOYED IN 2014.
In Ghana, as in other African countries, labor markets are skewed in favor of older workers. Employers are advertising for qualified people
54 Business Times Africa | 2016