Mahama's claim that over 1 million jobs were created in 2025 false - Report

A claim by President John Dramani Mahama during the State of the Nation Address on Friday, February 27, 2026, that one million people gained employment between the first and third quarters of 2025, citing data from the Ghana Statistical Service, has been determined to be false.

According to a report by myjoyonline.com, the president’s claim contradicts data published in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey by the Ghana Statistical Service.

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The report indicates that in the fourth quarter of 2024, 12.73 million Ghanaians were employed.

Employment stood at 13.09 million in the first quarter of 2025, rose to 13.44 million in the second quarter, and declined marginally to 13.42 million in the third quarter.

Compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, employment rose by 360,000 in the first quarter of 2025.

In the second quarter of 2025, employment increased by a further 350,000, the report added.

However, in the third quarter, employment declined by 20,000, according to the GSS report.

Adding the gains recorded in the first two quarters of 2025, yields totaled to 710,000 additional employed persons. When the third-quarter decline is factored in, the net increase across the three quarters stands at 690,000.

In either cases, the report said the figure falls short of one million, rendering President John Dramani’s claim that over one million people gained employment between Q1 and Q3 of 2025 inaccurate.

The report added that the Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, offered a different explanation when he was presented with these figures.

He argued that the figures were derived from comparing average employment levels.

Speaking on JoyFm’s Top Story, he said:

“We need to see the full gamut of data to extrapolate the figures and we do have the full gamut of data. Indeed, the average job creation or the average number of people in employment as of the end of 2024 was 14.2 million.

"The average number of people in employment between quarter 1 and quarter 3 of 2025 was 15.3 million. So if you do a simple analysis, you get 1.2 million. That's the difference. So, that is where the figures emanate from. This is Ghana service data.”

Again, the report insisted that official data tells a different story.

The average employment level for 2024 was 12.29 million, not 14.2 million.

The average employment level for the first three quarters of 2025 stood at 13.3 million, not 15.3 million.

The gap between these averages is approximately 1.01 million.

While this figure appears to support the one million jobs claim made by John Mahama, analysts note that using averages to suggest that one million people secured jobs within a defined period is misleading.

Averages compare employment levels at different points in time, rather than measuring actual changes in employment.

The appropriate measure of how many people found work between the first and third quarters of 2025 is the net change in employment over that period, based on data from the Ghana Statistical Service.

That net increase is 690,000, not one million or 1.2 million.

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Accordingly, the report concludes that the claim made by President John Dramani Mahama that there were some 1 million jobs created within the period is false.

MAG/AE

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