Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana

Ghana was, until very recently, a success story in Africa, achieving high and sustained growth and impressive poverty reduction. However, Ghana is now facing major challenges in diversifying its economy, sustaining growth, and making it more inclusive. Most of the new jobs that have been created in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Honorati, Maddalena, Johansson de Silva, Sara
Format:	Book
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:	JOBS INFORMALITY PRODUCTIVITY MIGRATION INCLUSION LABOR LABOR MARKETS SELF-EMPLOYMENT WAGE EMPLOYMENT EARNINGS SKILLS HOUSEHOLD ENTERPRISE
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25208

id	okr-10986-25208
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-252082021-04-23T14:04:29Z Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana Honorati, Maddalena Johansson de Silva, Sara JOBS INFORMALITY PRODUCTIVITY MIGRATION INCLUSION LABOR LABOR MARKETS SELF-EMPLOYMENT WAGE EMPLOYMENT EARNINGS SKILLS HOUSEHOLD ENTERPRISE Ghana was, until very recently, a success story in Africa, achieving high and sustained growth and impressive poverty reduction. However, Ghana is now facing major challenges in diversifying its economy, sustaining growth, and making it more inclusive. Most of the new jobs that have been created in the past decade have been in low-earning, low-productivity trade services. Macroeconomic instability, limited diversification and growing inequities in Ghana’s labor markets make it harder for the economy to create more jobs, and particularly, better jobs. Employment needs to expand in both urban areas, which will continue to grow rapidly, and rural areas, where poverty is still concentrated. The current fiscal and economic crisis is heightening the need for urgent reforms but limiting the room for maneuver and increasing pressure for a careful prioritization of policy actions. Going forward, Ghana will need to consider an integrated jobs strategy that addresses barriers to the business climate, deficiencies in skills, lack of competitiveness of job-creating sectors, problems with labor mobility, and the need for comprehensive labor market regulation. Ghana needs to diversify its economy through gains in productivity in sectors like agribusiness, transport, construction, energy, and information and communications technology (ICT) services. Productivity needs to be increased also in agriculture, in order to increase the earnings potential for the many poor who still work there. In particular, Ghana’s youth and women need help in connecting to these jobs, through relevant skills development and services that target gaps in information about job opportunities. Even with significant effort, most of Ghana’s population will continue to work in jobs characterized by low and fluctuating earnings for the foreseeable future, however, and they will need social safety nets that help them manage vulnerability to income shortfalls. More productive and inclusive jobs will help Ghana move to a second phase of structural transformation and develop into a modern middle-income economy. 2016-10-20T15:13:35Z 2016-10-20T15:13:35Z 2016-10-20 Book 978-1-4648-0941-5 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25208 English en_US Directions in Development; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	JOBS INFORMALITY PRODUCTIVITY MIGRATION INCLUSION LABOR LABOR MARKETS SELF-EMPLOYMENT WAGE EMPLOYMENT EARNINGS SKILLS HOUSEHOLD ENTERPRISE
spellingShingle	JOBS INFORMALITY PRODUCTIVITY MIGRATION INCLUSION LABOR LABOR MARKETS SELF-EMPLOYMENT WAGE EMPLOYMENT EARNINGS SKILLS HOUSEHOLD ENTERPRISE Honorati, Maddalena Johansson de Silva, Sara Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana
relation	Directions in Development;
description	Ghana was, until very recently, a success story in Africa, achieving high and sustained growth and impressive poverty reduction. However, Ghana is now facing major challenges in diversifying its economy, sustaining growth, and making it more inclusive. Most of the new jobs that have been created in the past decade have been in low-earning, low-productivity trade services. Macroeconomic instability, limited diversification and growing inequities in Ghana’s labor markets make it harder for the economy to create more jobs, and particularly, better jobs. Employment needs to expand in both urban areas, which will continue to grow rapidly, and rural areas, where poverty is still concentrated. The current fiscal and economic crisis is heightening the need for urgent reforms but limiting the room for maneuver and increasing pressure for a careful prioritization of policy actions. Going forward, Ghana will need to consider an integrated jobs strategy that addresses barriers to the business climate, deficiencies in skills, lack of competitiveness of job-creating sectors, problems with labor mobility, and the need for comprehensive labor market regulation. Ghana needs to diversify its economy through gains in productivity in sectors like agribusiness, transport, construction, energy, and information and communications technology (ICT) services. Productivity needs to be increased also in agriculture, in order to increase the earnings potential for the many poor who still work there. In particular, Ghana’s youth and women need help in connecting to these jobs, through relevant skills development and services that target gaps in information about job opportunities. Even with significant effort, most of Ghana’s population will continue to work in jobs characterized by low and fluctuating earnings for the foreseeable future, however, and they will need social safety nets that help them manage vulnerability to income shortfalls. More productive and inclusive jobs will help Ghana move to a second phase of structural transformation and develop into a modern middle-income economy.
format	Book
author	Honorati, Maddalena Johansson de Silva, Sara
author_facet	Honorati, Maddalena Johansson de Silva, Sara
author_sort	Honorati, Maddalena
title	Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana
title_short	Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana
title_full	Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana
title_fullStr	Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana
title_full_unstemmed	Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana
title_sort	expanding job opportunities in ghana
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2016
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25208
_version_	1764458735100493824

Expanding Job Opportunities in Ghana

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