The number of jobs advertised in selected print and online media, which gauges labour demand in the economy, declined in the third quarter of 2020 relative to corresponding period in 2019, the Bank of Ghana’s survey of Labour Market Conditions has revealed.

This is not surprising because of the impact of coronavirus on the economy from the second quarter through to the four quarter of last year.  Indeed, the Bank of Ghana said the decrease in the number of jobs advertised reflects the difficulties faced by businesses as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

In total, 6,880 job adverts were recorded in the third quarter of 2020 as compared with 9,485 for the third quarter of 2019.

This indicated a decline of 27.5 percent year-on-year.

Similarly, the number of job vacancies advertised in the review period dipped by 28.2% from 9,582 recorded for the second quarter of 2020.

Sector distribution and skill set of job adverts

The Services Sector maintained its dominance as the leading job-providing sector in the economy, accounting for 80.2% of total job adverts recorded during the third quarter of 2020.

This compares with a share of 82.2% recorded in the third quarter of 2019.

Industry followed with a share of 16.1%, up from 15.2% in the third quarter of 2019, while the Agriculture Sector accounted for 3.7% of the job adverts during the period, compared with 2.7% of total job adverts recorded for the corresponding quarter of 2019.

Further analysis revealed that the main requirements for skilled employees were tertiary education qualifications and a minimum of three years’ working experience.

This category, classified as Professionals and Technicians, collectively accounted for 52.3% of total jobs advertised during the third quarter of 2020, relative to 41.5% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019.

This was followed by the categories classified as Sales & Other Service Workers (29.5% in Q3:2020 vs. 38.0% in Q3:2019), Artisans & Machine Operators (11.0% vs. 10.6%), Secretarial & Clerical Staff (5.0% vs. 6.6%) and ‘Others’ (2.2% vs. 3.4%).