Dr. Yaw Baah, Secretary General of TUC
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has commended the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for the “remarkable” macroeconomic growth recorded in the past year, as stated by President Nana Akuffo-Addo during his State of the Nation Address last Thursday.
According to the TUC, a careful study of the address shows a significant improvement in the macroeconomic management of the economy, “which is impressive.”
It however, lamented the policy environment which it says continues to undermine the growth of the domestic private sector and constrains its ability to offer sustainable employment.
A statement signed by Dr. Yaw Baah, Secretary General of TUC, indicates, “We recognize the remarkable GDP growth from 3.6 percent in 2016 to 7.9 percent in 2017, the reduction in the fiscal deficit, the declining inflation rate, reduction in debt to GDP ratio, the clearance of arrears to the statutory funds, including the transfer of more than GH¢3 billion of second tier pension funds.”
TUC also hailed the government for the steps taken towards employment creation such as the Nation Builders’ Corps programme, which is expected to create 100,000 jobs for university graduates; the Entrepreneurship Programme by the Accra Digital Centre in collaboration with Ecobank Ghana Limited, among other important employment creation initiatives.
It said the sustainable way to ‘cure’ joblessness rests ultimately with the private sector as it will be central in the effort to reduce unemployment in the medium to long-term.
It therefore, called on the government to reform the trade policy and make it “truly business friendly.”
Employment Statistics
The statement also re-emphasized the need for the government to fund the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Ghana Statistical Service and other agencies to collect and analyse data on employment as a way of keeping track of progress made in job creation in the country.
It said employment creation is seen as a residual of macroeconomic stability and economic growth which has been the main feature of economic management in Ghana since the mid-1980s when the infamous structural adjustment programme was implemented.
“The false belief that employment creation will automatically follow economic growth has meant that our policymakers no longer have to set employment target, let alone measure employment. It is taking for granted that once the economy is growing employment is being created.
“The managers of the economy therefore do not care to investigate the impact of their policies on employment,” the statement expressed.
It added that the Ghana Statistical Service stopped publishing employment data in its monthly statistical bulletin as far back as 1991, but has the funding to collect and publish inflation data on a monthly basis.
“Why wouldn’t government policies go ahead without inflation data? Why does government compile and publish inflation data every month but not employment data?” the TUC queried.
It therefore suggested that government provides financial and other resources to the Ghana Statistical Service, universities and other research institutions to generate and publish employment statistics at least once or twice every year.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak