Employment increased by over 330,000 persons between Quarter 1 and Quarter 3 of 2025, reflecting continued absorption of labour, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has indicated.

The latest Quarterly Labour Force Statistics for Q1–Q3 2025, presented by the Government Statistician, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, showed that more than 15 million persons constituted the labour force across the first three quarters of the year, reflecting steady labour market expansion amid persistent structural challenges.

Despite this improvement, unemployment edged up slightly in Q3 to 13.0 percent, contributing to an average rate of 12.8 percent for the first three quarters of 2025.

“Despite strong employment numbers, job quality remains a major challenge. More than two-thirds of employed persons were in vulnerable employment, particularly women, rural workers, and those engaged in Agriculture.

Own-account work continued to dominate, indicating limited access to secure wage employment and persistent informality. These patterns highlight that employment growth alone does not guarantee economic security or resilience for households,” the data stated.

Gender and locality disparities persist

Female employment remained consistently higher than male employment throughout the period under review, with more than 7.2 million women employed compared to about 6 million men in each of the three quarters. However, this advantage in employment did not translate into lower unemployment, as women continued to experience higher unemployment rates than men, with an average gap of 3.7 percentage points in each quarter.

Spatial disparities were also pronounced. Urban areas consistently recorded higher employment levels than rural areas, with the widest gap observed in Q2, when urban employment exceeded rural employment by approximately 1.49 million persons. At the same time, unemployment remained significantly higher in urban areas, averaging 15.1 percent compared to 9.6 percent in rural localities, a difference of 5.5 percentage points.

Youth unemployment and NEET concerns

The report highlights sustained pressure in the youth labour market. Youth unemployment rates remained above the national average, with persons aged 15–24 years recording an average unemployment rate of 32.5 percent, while those aged 15–35 years averaged 21.9 percent in Q2 and Q3.

Greater Accra recorded the highest youth unemployment, reaching 49.3 percent for the 15–24 age group in Q3. In addition, a significant share of young people remained outside employment, education or training. In Q3, approximately 1.34 million persons aged 15–24 years, representing 21.5 percent and about 1.95 million persons aged 15–35 years thus 19.5 percent, were classified as Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET), underscoring ongoing challenges in school-to-work transitions.

Labour underutilisation and skills mismatch

Beyond unemployment, the GSS findings point to widespread labour underutilisation. The composite labour underutilisation rate (LU4) was estimated at 23.0 percent in Q2 and increased slightly to 23.4 percent in Q3. This indicated that about one in five employed persons was either underemployed or inadequately absorbed into productive work.

Underemployment was notably higher in rural areas, reaching 14.9 percent in Q3, compared to 9.7 percent in urban areas. On skills and qualification mismatch, in Q3, about two-thirds of employed persons (65.8 percent) perceived their skills as matching their jobs, while one in five were unsure. Over 10 percent reported that their skills exceeded job requirements, particularly men and urban workers. Meanwhile, 58.4 percent of workers felt their educational qualifications matched their jobs, with 8.2 percent describing themselves as overqualified and 15.7 percent as underqualified, the latter being more prevalent in rural areas.

Growing interest in shift-based work

Although nearly 98 percent of workers did not engage in night shift work, interest in shift-based arrangements is rising. Among employed persons not currently working shifts, 46.5 percent expressed interest in shift-based work in Q3, especially men (53.6 percent) and rural workers (51.7 percent).

However, 39.5 percent said they were not interested, a response more common among women and urban workers, while 14 percent said their decision would depend on conditions. The GSS noted that the findings provide critical evidence to guide labour market policy, particularly in addressing youth unemployment, urban joblessness, skills alignment and the emerging dynamics of flexible and shift-based work arrangements.

Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, Government Statistician, recommended that policymakers prioritise youth employment pathways by strengthening apprenticeships, school-to-work transition programmes, and targeted skills development for young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET). He further urged efforts to reduce vulnerable employment through formalisation, improved access to finance for small enterprises, and stronger labour protections, particularly in agriculture and rural areas.

Dr Iddrisu emphasised aligning skills development with labour market demand via closer coordination between education and training institutions, labour market monitoring systems, and employers, while also strengthening regional and district-level labour market planning to target interventions where unemployment, underemployment, and skills mismatches are most severe.

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