New Juaben Records 5,011 Unemployed

AT THE close of the national registration exercise, the New Juaben Municipal Labour Office, (NJMLO), one of the three centers for the municipality, recorded 5,011 unemployed.

Some of the people who registered did so because they needed a job to be able to save for further education and skill training so as to be marketable.

They said this in response to the questionnaire they filled.

This was contained in a special report presented to the Chronicle by the Municipal Lalbour Officer, Mr. Mark A. Didemudo, at Koforidua.

The report has it that the whole of last year 150 applicants were placed in employment, out of which 138 males and 12 females.

The first quarter of this year, only 19 persons have been placed in employment, with 17 being males and two females.

But, last year, out of the 151 job placements, 149 were absorbed by private sector establishments with only two in government establishments.

The story seems the same with the first quarter of this year when, in all, the 19 placements went to the private sector.

Chronicle gathered that the unemployed continue to register with the NJMLO for job placements, as it records between 60 and 120 unemployed every month.

Problems that were encountered during the exercise, Chronicle learnt, include lack of security personnel to control the public; the very length of the questionnaire (43 questions in all) to be answered by applicants, and inaccurate answers provided by applicants.

The majority of the unemployed now say they lack confidence in the labour office and the government for failing to meet their hopes and aspirations after the registration exercise.

Chronicle learnt that some of the unemployed still waiting for their job placement sometimes get so disillusioned that they make certain utterances like "they have been deceived and their time has been wasted for nothing."

After all, they say, the questionnaire was designed in such a way that the applicants were asked whether they needed jobs or want the government to assist them expand their businesses.

It became clear that some establishments go to declare vacancies at the Labour Office and ask for workers, but not in appreciable numbers.

This is so because the private sector which can employ those registered rather employs unregistered people wherever they can be found.

Didemudo explained that the private employers do this because they do not want to comply with the labour laws of the country and give workers their just due.

The workers' conditions of service end up poor.

This is because at the Labour Office, both the employer and the employee are made to meet their obligations under the labour laws of the land.

To check these, Didemudo said that his outfit has been embarking on establishment inspection to ensure that anomalies at work-places are rectified with the context of the labour laws.

He pointed out that if state organizations such as State Construction Company (SCC), and others are reactivated it will reduce unemployment, but by a very slight margin.

"What could be done to reduce unemployment drastically is to discover our resource potential and our human capital development to create more jobs for the unemployed," he pointed out.

The NJMLO admitted that the national registration exercise was a good thing because it provided the statistical data on the basis of which government can plan job creation for now.