Offer sustainable roadmap to deliver one million jobs initiative – Labour analyst to govt

•Government has been urged to provide a roadmap to implement its one million jobs agenda

•Finance Minster last week told lawmakers government intends to create the said jobs over the next three to four years

•Ghana is already facing a huge unemployment crisis

Government has been urged to provide a substantial roadmap it intends to implement in carrying

Read full articleout its one million jobs initiative.

This comes after government through the finance minister announced an ambitious plan to create one million jobs for the youth over the next three to four years.

Making the revelation during the presentation of the mid-year budget review before Parliament, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said the initiative is intended to promote and support the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), new ventures and start-ups.

But Labour analyst, Senyo Agyabeng believes the move should move beyond just an announcement but followed through with a roadmap set out to deliver the said jobs in order to create sustainable job opportunities instead of temporary ones.

“Indeed, some jobs are being created except that for example, in the agric sector, the 700 jobs were not permanent jobs, so they passed away very quickly. What we should be looking out for are sustainable jobs, jobs that really provide enough financial security over a long period of time for the people who would be engaged in those jobs,” he is quoted by Citi Business News.

He continued, “we say that we are creating jobs, but when we interrogate, we don’t find the details. Where are the jobs coming from, what specific sectors are they going to come from, what are the specific quantities and the types of jobs so that people who are able to apply for these jobs will do that,”

Senyo Agyabeng also called on government to provide detailed timelines on how the job creation initiative will be rolled out.

Already Ghana is facing an unemployment crisis with many youths not able to find sustainable jobs which has forced some quarters to resort to entrepreneurial means of earning an income.

Data available shows that 600,000 people out of the total labour force of over 12 million are not gainfully employed with analyst warning the figure is likely to increase if sustainable interventions are not put in place.