Around 68 percent of the working-age people in Ghana were dependent as of 2022. Although the age dependency ratio has decreased over the last years, it has remained a force to reckon with. The large dependency is particularly due to the high unemployment rate in the country. The
. In view of the rising state of joblessness, ruling governments often develop employment alleviation strategies. One of the recent public initiatives in Ghana is the
, which has sort to boost industrialization and employment since its introduction.
Slow but promising growth of self-employment
The situation of unemployment in Ghana has generally encouraged the setting up of new businesses in recent years. Notably, the country is one of the leading nations in Africa for startups. In 2022, 522
startups were counted in Ghana. To start a new business, an estimated number of 12.4
days were needed as of 2024, which encourages self-employment.
Employers made up 5.2 percent of the total employment in Ghana in 2021.
Male employers covered 6.4 percent of the total male employment, while
self-employed women accounted for 3.9 percent of the female employment. On the whole, self-employment figures have slowly increased over the last decade. Some common areas of self-employment are farming, craft, and food processing.
Economic sector contributions to employment
Employment in Ghana is driven by the
service sector, which occupied over 41 percent of the country’s total employment in 2021. On the other hand, the agricultural and industry sectors covered around 39.5 percent and 19 percent of the total employment, respectively. Some main industries of work in the country include travel and tourism, arts and entertainment, and health. As of 2022, the
travel and tourism industry represented 5.7 percent of Ghana’s total employment. Also, employees in the
health and social work industry reached around 261,000 in 2021, while the
arts and entertainment industry registered an employee base of approximately 87,300. Generally, the informal sector accounts for the largest proportion of workers in Ghana, compared to formal sector employment. This includes home-based and contributing family workers.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
