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Economic Think Tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), has said that unemployment should be a key economic policy priority for the Akufo-Addo administration, considering that 48% of youth in the country (15-24 year olds) are unemployed, based on a 2016 World Bank Report.

Presenting the institute’s key policy recommendations to the new Government in Accra, yesterday, the Director of Research at the IFS, Dr. John Kwakye, outlined various strategies for addressing the unemployment challenge.

Dr. Kwakyere commended supporting agriculture to boost employment, through specific measures such as a “School to Land Program” to engage young people in the sector.

He advocated the development and implementation of a Public Works Program (PWP) which he said, “would aimto provide work opportunities coupled with training through the delivery of public works, such as labour-intensive construction and community services by the youth and unemployed graduates.”

Implementing the National Strategy and Action Plan for Informal Enterprises, already developed by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, was also suggested. In addition, he recommended to expand the Rural Enterprise Program, through which household enterprises are promoted, to cover all districts in the country.

“By strengthening labour market information and monitoring systems, a regular flow of information regarding employment opportunities would be created,” Dr Kwakye added.

The lack of skilled graduates was identified as a major cause of high unemployment rates.Reforming educational curricula to focus attention on technical and entrepreneurial disciplines were posed as solutions to address this problem.

“Unemployment in Ghana has been attributed to factors such as concentration of growth in low job-creating sectors such as highly-automated services activities. This is in contrast to sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, which have a high potential to create jobs, yet have stagnated,” he remarked.

He statedthat high-level unemployment is a concern because it can trigger social upheaval, with disaffected jobseekers displaying negative social behaviours as a result of inability to find gainful employment.