Lawyer Martin Kpebu has said that the growing unemployment rate in Ghana poses a national security threat.
He makes the point that it’s not an enviable position for the government to be saddled with a high rate of unemployment.
In order to resolve the unemployment rate, Martin Kpebu suggested that the government prioritise investment in agriculture.
“It’s not an enviable position at all to be in government and be saddled with huge unemployment. Unemployment is a national security threat, has been threatening since the late 90s.
“Why can’t we just ramp up agriculture with the huge arable lands we have. We have so much land, and once we have land, we should solve,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, December 20, in relation to the new labour reports released by the Ghana Statistical Service.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said. Despite strong employment numbers, job quality remains a major challenge.
It stated that more than two-thirds of employed persons were in vulnerable employment, particularly women, rural workers, and those engaged in Agriculture.
The Government Statistician, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, said this when he released the Labour Force Statistics 2025 Quarters 1 to 3, in Accra on Thursday, December 18.
He further stated that own-account work continued to dominate, indicating limited access to secure wage employment and persistent informality. These patterns highlight that employment growth alone does not guarantee economic security or resilience for households.
Unemployment and Youth Outcomes Unemployment remained relatively stable but elevated, particularly among young people, he added.
The national unemployment rate edged down slightly to 12.8% in First Quarter 2025 from 13.1% in Fourth Quarter of 2024, eased further to 12.6% in Second Quarter 2025, and then rose to 13.0% in Third Quarter 2025.
“The key message here is that jobs are increasing, but unemployment rate is not falling in a sustained way. New job creation is still not fast enough to absorb new entrants, especially young people and urban job seekers.
“Youth unemployment consistently exceeded the national average, with the highest rates (32.4%) recorded among persons aged 15 to 24. In addition, about 21.5 percent of young people aged 15–24 were not in employment, education, or training (NEET).
“This represents a significant loss of productive potential and underscores the urgency of targeted youth employment and skills interventions. Urban unemployment remained higher than rural unemployment, and females continued to experience higher unemployment rates than males,” he said.
