Ghana’s youth unemployment remained high at 7.16% in 2023, particularly among youths between the ages of 15 and 24.

According to the updated 2024 Africa Economic Outlook by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), the unemployment was also high among women compared with men.

“Multidimensional poverty worsened slightly, from 46% in 2017 to 46.7% in 2022, due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Youth unemployment remains high at 7.16%, particularly among youths ages 15–24, especially women (36.7% compared with 29.3% among

men).

The report further revealed that the youth unemployment in the country was rising.

It therefore called for reinforcement of Ghana’s structural transformation needs.

Productivity has stagnated in services, the dominant employment sector, and is rising only slowly in industry and agriculture.

Again, Agriculture’s employment share declined from 53.9% in 2007 to 29.8% in 2019, while industry’s share rose from 14.1% to 21.0.

The services’ sector share also rose from 31.9% to 49.2% over the same period.

To fast-track the structural transformation, the report said Ghana must enhance its competitiveness by easing infrastructure bottlenecks; accelerate agro-industrialization by strengthening skills development, value addition, and private sector development.

Additionally, it must create a policy framework for technology adoption and innovation.