The effect of unemployment on the economy of Ghana

Volume 8, Issue 1, February 2023     |     PP. 1-20      |     PDF (392 K)    |     Pub. Date: January 17, 2023
DOI: 10.54647/economics79350    112 Downloads     5614 Views  

Author(s)

Andrews Yao Dumevi, College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China

Abstract
Purpose – Ghana has consistently been ranked among the ten fastest-growing African economies since 2017, but in 2020, falling oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the country into economic recession. The objective of this study is to measure the heterogeneous effects of the COVID 19 crisis, through the prism of unemployment, populations, and the Ghanaian economy. This involves identifying which profiles of job seekers, and which territory profiles have been particularly vulnerable to the crisis.
Design/methodology/approach – The methodology followed in this study consists in carrying out linear regressions on data from the World Bank database to see which variables affect the unemployment rate.
Findings –The additional financial costs generated by unemployment and the fear of unemployment also contribute to increasing the state's public debt.
Research limitations/implications –. Any scientific work has its limits. Our research only focused on the effects of unemployment in Ghana; we could have looked at the case of other countries in the sub-region, namely ECOWAS.
Practical implications –. In Ghana, as in the rest of the world, youth unemployment seems to be a truly structural phenomenon, as the elasticity of youth employment concerning GDP growth is limited.
Social implications –. It is noted that a young person in a situation of unemployment and underemployment, constitutes a loss for himself and the society because he does not participate in the economic life of his environment or even his country.
Originality/value – The originality of this work concerns the consideration of the role played by the geographical location of job seekers, their competitors in the labor market, and vacant jobs on the probability for job seekers to exit unemployment.

Keywords
Covid19, economy, Unemployment, Human resources management, Ghana

Cite this paper
Andrews Yao Dumevi, The effect of unemployment on the economy of Ghana , SCIREA Journal of Economics. Volume 8, Issue 1, February 2023 | PP. 1-20. 10.54647/economics79350

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