Economist and Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School, Prof. Godfred Bokpin, says Ghana’s persistent “jobless growth” is the result of years of failing to make employment generation a central objective of economic policy.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story in response to the National Development Planning Commission’s (NDPC) assessment that Ghana’s 2025 economic growth was “jobless,” Prof. Bokpin said the country’s weak relationship between economic growth and employment is neither new nor unexpected.
According to him, Ghana has consistently pursued economic growth without deliberately designing policies to create jobs, particularly for the country’s growing youth population.
“This is not surprising because we have not been intentional as a country in engineering job-rich growth. We have worked towards jobless growth, and we have perpetuated jobless growth over the years,” he said.
Prof. Bokpin argued that employment generation should be treated as a key macroeconomic target, just like inflation, GDP growth and external sector performance.
“If unemployment remains a key component of Ghana’s macroeconomic failure, then there should be express targets for employment generation in the national budget,” he stated.
He noted that while government sets annual targets for inflation, GDP growth and import cover, there are no clearly defined national targets for job creation or unemployment reduction.
“We track GDP growth. We track inflation, and inflation is even reported monthly. But there is no nationally determined data generation on employment in a way that allows us to track the progress we are making,” he observed.
Prof. Bokpin said the absence of measurable employment targets has weakened policy planning and resource allocation, making it difficult to channel investments into labour-intensive sectors capable of creating sustainable jobs.
He stressed that setting annual employment targets would compel government to deliberately direct resources to sectors with high job creation potential and ensure that economic growth translates into improved livelihoods.
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