Employment and Labor Relations Minister, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah has said that the Nana Addo Government policies have led to a decline in Ghana’s unemployment state.

Citing the Planting for Food and Jobs Program as one key example, he said the policies have led to the decline in the country’s unemployment figure, which is hovering a rate of 7.1% down from over 10%

“So strictly speaking, we have two definitions of unemployment. We have the strict definition and we have the relaxed definition. If we apply the strict definition, the figure now is 3.7 but then if we use the relax method which includes all other persons that have given up and are actually though not working but are not looking for work, the figure then comes up to 7.1 per cent,” he added.

Speaking at the Meet the Press Series on Thursday, he explained that if not for the free SHS policy, thousands of students would have been left home annually, adding to the unemployment rate.

Mr Baffour Awuah said that the planting for food and job program has created 1.5 million jobs since it started.

He added that about 422,000 Ghanaians are currently hunting for jobs with an additional 417,000 people given up looking for jobs out of frustration.

“People who are actually not working and made efforts to look for work and did not obtain work summed up to 422,000. So strictly speaking these are the unemployed persons that we have on our hand.”

“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 [from 3.7%] to 7.1%,” he said.

“As far as the workforce is concerned, 11,058,357 people are noted as being employed currently and 1,143,275 persons are noted as “working for all use” or being volunteers and were therefore not considered to be in employment as per ILO definitions of employment,” he said.

Mr Awuah cited government’s social intervention programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs policy, Rearing for Food and Jobs, Modules under the Youth Employment Agencies, National Builders Corps among others as contributing factors to the declining unemployment figures.

“It may interest you, when we studied the data and analysed it, we realised that one of the major contributors to the decline in unemployment has been the introduction of the free senior high school (SHS) policy,” he said.

According to him, a total of 611,397 new jobs have been created in the formal sector.

Out of the number, he said 343,458 were employed by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).