He said the government must be strategic in its approach towards job creation for the majority of the teeming youth who graduate from various levels of school each year.

[contextly_sidebar id=”bnmOTe4wTUeuWOeVkVmPwj4CfnCJJOvg”]Speaking on Eyewitness News, Prof. Boateng said the situation had been worsened due to the cap on recruitment into the public sector as a result of International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities as well as stagnation in the growth and expansion of the private sector.

His comment was in reaction to the exponential increase in the number of applicants for this year’s recruitment exercise of the Ghana Immigration Service.

From about 40,000 applications in the previous year, over 84,000 persons applied for this year’s recruitment exercise.

Many have attributed the increase to the high levels of unemployment in the country.

According to Prof. Boateng, the attribution may be accurate as current figures peg graduate unemployment among degree-holding youth in Ghana between ages 20 and 25 at 30.5%.

He said the situation “is a reflection of the challenges that we have as a country in terms of trying to create productive jobs for young people who have finished at least Secondary school over the years.”

He argued that the challenge of lack of employment avenues in the country had “accumulated for some time now…. We are having a lot of people entering the labour market annually, but we are not able to create sufficient jobs to absorb these people.”

While admitting the role of the private sector in addressing the problem, he said, “the government must recognize the problem as a big challenge and go deep into it to find out who the unemployed youth are; [their academic levels and areas of specialization] because if you don’t know the kind of people you are creating the job for, then you will create the job for people who don’t need it.”

He further called on the government to move away from mere rhetoric on job creation to develop “pragmatic policies….that aligns with the country’s future development plans.”

“Setting up the national youth authority is not enough,” he added.

Prof. Boateng however noted that, not all those who applied for the Immigration Service may be unemployed. According to him, it is likely some of them are merely unsatisfied with their current jobs and want a change.

He also noted that, for most people in the private sector, they often wish to work in the public sector where job security is assured over a life-time as long as one hasn’t reached the retirement age.

Immigration to recruit only 500

Meanwhile, only 500 out of the 84,000 applicants interested in joining the Ghana Immigration Service will be recruited.

This represents less than one (1%) percent intake from the vast number of applicants.

The Immigration Service in a statement copied to citifmonline.com said it shortlisted 47,477 qualified candidates from the first phase of the selection process, and will further prune the number in the second phase until it chooses the final 500 to serve in the various vacant positions.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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