The Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises Committee, Richard Quashigah says contrary to claims by the Employment and Labour Relations Ministry that President Akufo-Addo and his government have created jobs for the Ghanaian people, more jobs have rather been lost.
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah at a presser, Thursday mentioned that the Akufo-Addo government has been able to create a total of 611,397 new jobs in the formal sector.
“People who are actually not working and made efforts to look for work and did not obtain work summed up to 422,000 [3.7%]. So, strictly speaking, these are the unemployed persons that we have on our hand,” he said.
“I will also agree that somebody will decide that I will not go and look for jobs at all because even if I go, I will not get, so, I will make no effort. Their number is 417,500. So, if you add that to those who are looking for work but are not getting it, the percentage then moves to 7.1%,” the minister added while stating that government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme witnessed the provision of 1,539,000 new jobs in the agriculture sector.
But speaking to the media, Friday, Hon. Quashigah expressed that government has been putting out inaccurate figures.
He said: “When it comes to the claim of creating 611,397 total jobs in the formal sector of the economy of which MDAs contributed a total of 343,458, there is another high level of dishonesty and deceit on the part of the Minister and his government.
“The facts as contained in the quarterly report of the Controller and Accountant Generals Department, CAGD, puts total active staff strength of the MDAs as at December 2016 at 507,343 and the staff strength as at December 2018 at 542,803, making a difference of 35,460 additional employment created; simply a case of replacement of retirees and other labour movement within the MDAs and not a complete and new jobs created. Again, this clearly shows the level of dishonesty and deceit we have been reiterating all along.”
While questioning among other things, the specific existence of these jobs government is claiming to have created, Mr. Quashigah intimated that the government rather worsened the plight of Ghanaians as a number of job losses have been recorded.
He said: “More jobs have been lost than have been created under the Nana Addo administration since they took over. The upheavals in the banking and financial sector led to thousands of job losses, the textile sector also saw thousands of job losses, the breweries sector about 1,500, food and beverages about 1,200, whiles the media landscape also saw hundreds of job losses.
“It is therefore not surprising that the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies, CSS after its work concluded that over a million jobs have been lost since Nana Addo led NPP government came into force. If that is anything to go by, then the doubtful jobs of 611,397 created in the MDAs and the private formal sector as posited by the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations in his meet the press encounter is still in arrears of well over 400,000 job losses.”
Below is the full statement
Richard Quashigah, Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament