Varsity graduates rush for ‘any job’

The contraction of the job market has compelled university graduates to seek ‘any jobs’ (low status jobs) that would enable them to survive the harsh economic conditions.

The Ashanti Regional Labour Office says a number of graduates have been seeking the support of the office to secure ‘any type of job’ that will enable them to stay afloat.

It is a clear departure from the past when university graduates were moving into management positions via the Labour Office.

In a chat with The Mirror in Kumasi, Ms Agnes Gorman, the Regional Labour Officer, said, “Most often the jobs we secure for them are, in the normal sense, way below the level of graduates but they are ready to accept them.”

Pressed to name some of the jobs, she mentioned only clerical work without going into details.

“I will not go into details but the fact is that many of the jobs that the graduates are struggling for these days typify the narrowness of the job market.

“Only last week, a graduate came to my office pleading with me to do everything possible to help her to get a job.”

“When I asked her the nature of the job she was looking for, she said anything that will keep her going,” the labour officer said.

She said there had been instances where the labour office had counselled job seekers against going in for certain jobs saying, “In many instances they rejected the advice but interestingly when they went in and saw the problems in there they resigned”.

Ms Gorman lamented the way her office had been inundated with requests for job placements but was quick to add that the jobs were non-existent.

Notwithstanding the development, the regional labour officer said her outfit would continue to explore placements for not only graduates but other people, especially the youth.

For instance, she said the labour offices had been able to secure jobs for a good number of youth as house-helps.

“Mind you the type of house-help jobs we look for our clients are not the ones that are so despicable,” she pointed out.

“The house-helps are usually females, and we make sure we enter into agreements with the employers to respect the rights of whoever they engage,” she said.

According to Ms Gorman, unlike the past when establishments trooped to the labour office with vacancies to be filled, this time officers from the various labour offices in the region have been going round establishments to find out whether there were vacancies to be filled.

“Generally, the results have not been as positive as we expected as the jobs are simply not available,” she stressed.

Against the background that every year the universities and other tertiary institutions continue to produce thousands of graduates, the labour officer called for a paradigm shift from seeking office work and encouraged the youth to consider self-employment.

She said, “As a labour officer, I also advise that we tailor our education to self-employment creation.”

She described as positive, the government’s keen interest in entrepreneurship development among the youth.

Ms Gorman stated that in the past people only saw the Labour Department as a place where job seekers went for labour cards.

But the functions are broader than that, she said, explaining that workers who had difficulties with their employers could also contact the Labour Office for redress.

The Labour Act, she said, had empowered the Labour Department to ensure that workers were not cheated in any way by their employers.

Speaking with some graduates, they said they were pushed into their current jobs because as they put it, "any job is better than no job".

Twenty-eight-year-old Augustina Sarpong, who graduated with a Second Class Upper Division in Bachelor of Business Administration and currently works with a microfinance company in Kumasi as a junior clerk, said it was better for her to stay in that job and receive pittance than to stay home doing nothing.

Grace Osei Sarfo, who works as a ‘susu’ (deposits) collector with another microfinance company, said she completed university in 2009 but it was not until 2012 that she was compelled to take up her current job.

"I had written several applications seeking employment at various establishments but I received no positive results so I fell on the ‘susu’ collection job, which fetches me some little commission. But, I am praying that God will open the doors for me to get a ‘proper job’ soon," she said.

She said for the past two years that she had been with the company, she had been looking round to find “a better job" but had not been successful.

Peter Kofi Ntiamoah, a 2010 university graduate, lamented the difficulties he went through before securing a job as a supervisor in a sanitation company.

"I receive just GH¢300 a month but I am managing it because there is nothing I can do for now," he said.