Ghana’s average unemployment rate surged to 14.7% in the third quarter of 2023, from 13.7% recorded during the same period in 2022.
According to the Ghana Labour Statistics by the Ghana Statistical Service, the unemployment rate among females is consistently higher than among males.
The sharp increase in the unemployment rate of females between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, it said, has culminated in a wider unemployment gender gap in 2023, compared to 2022.
The difference in the unemployment rates between urban and rural areas also widened successively for the first three quarters of 2023.
In the second and third quarters of 2023, the urban unemployment rate, it said was almost twice that compared to rural areas.
Labour force participation and absorption rates peak for the ages 40 to 44 years with unemployment rates lowest for this age group.
Between 2023 Quarter One and Quarter Two, the percentage of persons outside the labour force because they were fully in education increased by 17.6 percentage points and marginally declined by 0.9 percentage points between quarters 2 and 3. The percentage of persons who did some work but were not employed declined by 13.5 percentage points between quarter one and quarter three and further declined by 4.6 percentage points between quarter 2 and quarter 3.
Eastern, 3 others record unemployment rates lower than the national average
Across all quarters, four regions (Eastern, Bono East, Oti, and Upper West) recorded unemployment rates lower than the national rate.
Conversely, Greater Accra and Ashanti regions consistently recorded unemployment rates higher than the national average during this same period.
