Unemployment in Ghana in 2024 would remain at an average 4.0% of the labour force, Fitch Solutions has stated.

It is expected to be at the same level in 2025 and 2026 respectively.

It pointed out that the unemployment rate in the country has been rising slowly since 2017 and is expected to continue this path over the medium term and beyond.

“The size of the country's labour force is reduced by low life expectancy at around 64.3 years of age, which is itself a result of the low level of government expenditure on healthcare as well as the prevalence of water-borne diseases and chronic illnesses such as HIV/AIDS”, it mentioned.

“A shortage of highly skilled workers also means that employers must import workers from abroad to fill the gaps in the domestic workforce”, it added.

Broader Economic Challenges

Meanwhile, the UK-based firm said the broader economic challenges confronting households and consumers continue to emanate from the re-opening of economies following the Covid-19 pandemic.

It added Inflationary pressures are being driven by both demand-pull and cost-push factors.

“In an effort to reduce inflation, central banks have implemented policy rate increases at some of the most rapid paces in history. This has decreased the value of debt accrued during the historically low-interest rate period over 2015-2019. While household wealth has reached historic highs, supported by robust equity market performance and higher house prices, some property markets are now showing signs of weakening, and company forward-looking outlooks are increasingly negative”, it said.

It concluded that should this trend intensify, a significant decline in consumer wealth could lead to a rapid reduction in consumption.