145,000 jobs created since 2017 – YEA

The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has revealed that it has created over one hundred and forty-five thousand (145,000) jobs for the youth in the country since 2017.

It also disclosed that it has on its portal, currently, two thousand three hundred (2,300) job vacancies waiting to be matched to prospective employees.

This revelation comes after consistent lamentation by the youth in the country over the increasing rate of youth unemployment. Many have also blamed this development on the increasing rate of criminal activities across the nation.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during his campaign prior to the 2016 election promised to create one million direct and indirect jobs, but that has not been achieved.

The YEA says it hopes to meet the target between now and 2024.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr, Partnerships Manager at the YEA JobCentre Michael Oteng Fordjour, noted that the YEA started with securing jobs in the public sector but has now moved to the private sector to increase the number of jobs created.

He said, “with the YEA when we started, it was public sector but looking at the quantum of people that come out every year from our universities and polytechnics, the YEA decided to move, not in its entirety, from the public sector but to bring in the private sector also on board.”

“As of now, as I’m talking to you we have a whole lot of jobs on our portal. We’ve been able to recruit 4,000 and still counting, into various sections of jobs from entry-level to managerial level.”

On outstanding jobs yet to be matched, he indicated “as at now on our portal we have 2,000 jobs on our portal ready to be taken.”

On the overall plan for the next three to four years as regards job creation, he mentioned “with 145,000 jobs created in the past four years, we should be able to double that number up. Within the next four years, the president has said he wants to create one million jobs which means that we are going to get the needed support from the ministry of finance, from the presidency.”

This, he said, his outfit will execute with the help of the NEIP, NBSSI, 1D1F, Free SHS, etc.

The YEA will hold a job fair in the coming days that is expected to have about 130 companies that are looking for people to work with. “As of now, we’ve been able to declare 2,300 vacancies to be filled, and still counting.”