Government has reportedly created some 611,397 new jobs in the formal sector.

The jobs were created between 2017 and 2019.

Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, made this known to the media on Thursday, August 15, 2019, at the Ministry of Information Meet-The-Press Series.

Giving the breakdown of the jobs, he stated that 343,458 new jobs were created by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) during the period under review.

He said “in addition to these new jobs in the formal sector, the ever famous Planting for Food and Jobs Programme created jobs from 2017 to 2018.”

According to him, 267,939 jobs were created by formal private sector.

He revealed that a total of 11.6 million, representing 63 percent of the working age population are in different types of employment.

According to him, 1.14 million people, representing about 6 percent are working for own use or working voluntarily and therefore not considered to be in employment as per ILO definition of employment.

He said the remaining 5.36 million are not working because of schooling, incapacitation, domestic activities or unemployment.

Drop

He disclosed that unemployment rate has dropped from 11.9 percent in 2015 to 7.1 percent in 2019.