Highlighting 1M job losses without corresponding gains: An illustrative case of intellectual dishonesty?

I was taken aback reading the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies (CSS) research findings which claim that over one million Ghanaians have lost their jobs in the industrial, banking, mining, media, and services sectors since 2017 (See: ‘Over 1 million Ghanaians have lost their jobs since 2017 – CSS; starrfmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 16/10/2018).

“The CSS, from its study of the situation, found that over a million individuals who contributed significantly to Ghana’s workforce and also served as breadwinners in their families have had to suffer the misery of job loss,” the Centre said in a press release Monday.

Let us be honest, it would only take a disputatious character to contend that some people have not lost their livelihoods over the last twenty months.

Likewise, it would be boundlessly unconscionable for anybody to refute the fact that some people have also secured gainful employment over the past twenty months.

Deductively, therefore, we can only arrive at the exact job losses or job gains if we do the arithmetic.

So, it would appear somewhat oxymoronic if a supposedly academic researcher bamboozled onto the scene and informed Ghanaians that he or she had conducted a research study on unemployment in Ghana, and ridiculously ascertained that over one million people have lost their jobs over the last twenty months without presenting the corresponding job gains over the same period.

In fact, I can hardly abandon my fury in condemnation over the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies weird and somewhat baseless research findings.

Given the circumstances, why won’t some of us assume that the so-called research study was only a political exercise designed to discredit the incumbent NPP government?

There is no denying or hiding the fact that jobs have been lost in the industrial, banking, mining, media, and services sectors. But the all-important question is: how many people actually lost their jobs?

Isn’t it also true that some of them may have secured jobs in other sectors of the economy?

Take, for instance, did the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies cross check with the recruiters of the National Builders Corp?

The last time I checked, over one hundred thousand unemployed graduates have been offered various positions through the National Builders Corp.

It is also true that in the past twenty months, a number of recruitments have taken place in the security agencies.

In fact, in the past twenty months, the nurses and teachers, many of whom have been unemployed since 2012 have been employed in their respective sectors.

Besides, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, a little over seven hundred thousand people have joined the innovative ‘Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

What is more, the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies somewhat conveniently failed to analyse the number of people who lost their jobs or businesses as a result of the business crippling dumsor under the erstwhile NDC administration and the number of people who have revived their businesses following the sufficient electricity supplies.

The crucial question then is: why did the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies flagrantly refuse to take such numbers into consideration in their analysis?

Since the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies failed to furnish us with their research methodology, we can draw an adverse inference that they rather plucked the figures from the air.

In sum, since the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies found it somewhat convenient to include the jobless illegal miners (galamseyers) in their analysis, they would have done justice to their findings if they also included the armed robbers who have lost their jobs as a result of effective policing.

K. Badu, UK.

k.badu2011@gmail.com