Where are the jobs? – Labour Expert challenges govt’s 3 million jobs claim

A Labour Expert and General Secretary of the Professionals and Allied Workers of Ghana Seth Ablorso has questioned the government’s 3 million jobs it says it has created.

Seth Ablorso says the government owes it a duty to Ghanaians to inform Ghanaians about the number of job losses and not just jobs that were created.

The Minister-designate for Employment and Labour Relations Ignatius Baffour- Awuah appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, February 17, indicated that the government under President Akufo Addo’s first term in office created three million jobs.

“The last time we reported was in September 2020 and the figure was around three million jobs,” the Nominee said during vetting.

These jobs according to the Minister came from the government’s planting for Food and Jobs, and the 100,000 Nation’s Builders Corp, NABCO beneficiaries and largely the private sector.

However, Seth Ablorso speaking to Alfred Ocansey on the 3FM’s Sunrise Morning Show is concerned the figures churned out are not verifiable.

“The facts are that we don’t have verifiable information. The first indicator of jobs created is an increase in membership of the social security and every employer needs to register with the scheme”.

According to him, the labour offices in the national employment centre, which comes with national offices, regional offices and district offices. “So if a government claims to have created jobs where are the distribution of those jobs. Where are the jobs, where are the kind of jobs created? He queried.

“Government should tell us honestly how many jobs have been lost both by their own policies for instance the microfinance institutions. We cannot talk about jobs created without talking about the losses”. He stated.