Massive Unemployment: Who Is To Blame?

By:  Nantomah Mustapha, UCC, Staaph@yahoo.com

The problem of unemployment has been an albatross around the neck of government for more than a decade today. Its prevalence continues to intensify following the churning out of tens of thousands of graduates from our tertiary institutions in the country annually. Government often expresses concern about this problematic issue but not much has been done by way of measures to curb it. Usually, strategies employed by government to mitigate unemployment are mostly short- term in nature. Some non-governmental organizations have also contributed their quota to resolving this matter but this has not been enough since this problem continues to increase by the day. The root cause of the problem is often ignored in an attempt an attempt to solve it. Politicians as usual, try to make political capital out of it to the detriment of the unfortunate ones entangled in this pathetic situation.


The genesis or cause of this predicament can be traced to increase in population and technological advancement, poor governance, the static nature of our educational system among a plethora of others. The increase the population of this country without corresponding increases in the structures that absorb the graduates into the world of work is a major problem facing the country as far unemployment is concerned. More graduates are turn out on regular basis by the country’s tertiary institutions but the structures in place are too small to absorb all of them. Instead of expanding these structures as well as adding new ones such as industries, government has rather focused its attention on building more educational institutions to train more unemployed graduates.


The upsurge of advanced technology which should have been a relief for a third world country like Ghana has rather compounded the problem of unemployment. More employees have been rendered redundant following this technological advancement. Graduates who do not have any form of knowledge of the products of technology such as any knowledge in ICT are less marketable in the job market while employees who do not upgrade themselves in these areas are laid off or are poorly remunerated by employers.


There is also the urgent need for a paradigm shift in the country’s educational system. Our tertiary institutions continue to run programmes and courses for decades that either archaic or need restructuring in order to meet the employment needs of employers. Certain courses and programmes that are supposed to be phased out of the system due to their superfluous nature in the job market are still in these institutions and being patronized massively by unfortunate students. When these unfortunate students graduate, they go out there to inflate the already worsened figure of unemployment.


A country that exports more of its natural resources and import over 80% of its commodities cannot guarantee a vibrant economy at all, and that is exactly what Ghana is doing. Ghana can effectively handle this unemployment problem if the government begins to focus on industrializing the economy instead continuing to engage in this unhealthy import and export way of managing the economy. The springing up of industries will result in demand for labour that can absorb these unemployed youth.


The countries tertiary institutions must also be advised to liaise with the industries and other employment agencies to know what these agencies demand from the graduates that they produce. This will enable the institutions to fashion out programmes that are in consonant with the needs of these employers in order to avoid any mismatch in the job market. Most graduates come out of these institutions with the knowledge acquired not needed in the job market.


It also behoves on students as employers and employees to be, to seek guidance when choosing programmes of study offered by these tertiary institutions so as to avoid being unemployed after graduation. Most students read programmmes without knowing the reason for reading these programmes. Students should also try as much as possible to identify gaps in the employment sector so as to prepare themselves adequately to fill in the gaps after completion.


From the above discussion, it is obvious that the problem of unemployment should not be entirely blamed on the government alone, but also on our institutions and the graduates being turned out of these institutions even though the government must take the lion ’s share of the problem. Case closed.