Ghana must shift its economic policy focus toward job creation while building capacity in labour economics, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Nii Moi Thompson, has said.
He warned that the country’s ability to design effective employment policies is constrained by a shortage of expertise in labour economics, limiting how well policymakers can address unemployment and underemployment.
“To function as a modern economy, we must deepen our understanding of labour dynamics,” he said, adding that current insights into employment trends are too narrow to support robust policymaking.
His comments come at a time when Ghana is recording improving macroeconomic indicators, raising concerns about whether economic stabilisation is translating into job creation, higher incomes, and broader growth.
In response, the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has launched a targeted capacity-building programme to train about 14 to 15 professionals drawn from key public institutions, including the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Finance, selected metropolitan assemblies, and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.
The programme, implemented in collaboration with the International Labour Organization, includes technical training in Italy aimed at equipping participants with tools to analyse labour markets, productivity trends, and structural barriers to job creation.
Dr Thompson said the reform effort is both technical and policy-driven, focusing on building analytical capacity while repositioning employment as a core measure of national development.
“At the policy level, the focus must be clear: employment, employment, employment,” he said.
He indicated that Ghana’s economic policy framework—traditionally centred on inflation control, exchange rate stability, fiscal consolidation, and debt sustainability—may need to evolve to better reflect employment outcomes.
Analysts say a jobs-first approach would require closer coordination across fiscal, monetary, and industrial policies, alongside improved labour market data to guide decisions on investment, taxation, and credit allocation.
Dr Thompson noted that the shift does not mean abandoning macroeconomic stability, but rather broadening the policy lens to ensure that economic gains translate into real opportunities for citizens.
Ghana is emerging from a period of economic stress marked by high inflation, debt restructuring, and currency volatility, with public expectations increasingly focused on jobs and livelihoods.
He said the NDPC initiative is aimed at addressing a deeper institutional gap by embedding labour economics expertise within the policymaking system.
Without such capacity, he warned, policy reforms risk being built on weak evidence and may fail to deliver meaningful employment outcomes.
Dr Thompson added that the next phase of economic management should be judged not only by stability, but also by its ability to create jobs, boost productivity, and improve living standards.
