The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has created over 84,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country from January to June 2023, Emmanuel Kwasi Afriyie, Head of Corporate Affairs of the Agency, has said.

He said the Agency over the past months, had trained and deployed 6,000 Community Health Workers across health centres and CHPS Compounds in the country, 15,000 Community Protection Assistants engaged by the Ghana Police Service, and 500 Prisons Office Assistants.

The rest are the registration of 800 artisans, the ongoing recruitment of 5,000 workers for the Cocoa sector in the Western region, and the recent recruitment of 6,000 youth as Insurance Agents nationwide to serve in various insurance companies across the country, among others.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Mr Afriyie said the figures exceeded the Agency’s target of 71,000 jobs to be created for the year 2023, adding that the Agency remained committed to its mandate of creating and facilitating jobs for the youth.

The Agency was established under the Youth Employment Act 2015 (Act 887) to empower young people to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic and sustainable development of the country.

Its objective is to support youth between the ages of 15 and 35 through skills training and internship modules to transition from a situation of unemployment to employment.

Mr Afriyie said: “We are planning to engage more with the private sector to create more job opportunities for the youth in the country.

“We are committed to connecting jobs to the teeming youth in the private sector and ensuring their sustainable livelihoods for national development,” he said.

Mr Afriyie said jobs were available in the country and urged the youth to connect with the Agency through its social media for opportunities.

The 2021 population census put the labour force, which is the economically active population of 15 years and older, at 11,541,355.

Out of the figure, 9,990,237 are employed and 1,551,118, are unemployed.

The figure puts the unemployment rate at 13.44 per cent.