The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), Alex Frimpong, has disclosed that many businesses lack the capacity to absorb fresh graduates from tertiary institutions.
“We are not expanding as a business in recent times because of the current macroeconomic environment, and the best thing to do now is to try and keep the little that we have”, Alex Frimpong added.
“We don’t have the requisite vacancies to employ all these people and this has nothing to do with the quality of graduates coming out of our institutions”, Mr. Frimpong added.
He pointed out that businesses are struggling and the necessary expansion needed to accommodate these graduates is not occurring.
He also revealed that the job market is evolving, as many enterprises are unprepared to onboard and train these young graduates. Instead, they seek specific skills to fill existing positions at their workplaces.
The CEO of the Ghana Employers Association was responding to the recent report from the Ghana Statistical Service on unemployment, which indicates high unemployment rates among graduates and individuals with higher education.
Some argue that many of these graduates are now demanding better working conditions and higher salary levels, exacerbating the unemployment challenge.
Mr. Frimpong clarified that businesses are not refraining from hiring due to high salary demands from graduates, but rather due to a lack of available positions.
“We should realise that the formal sector is not expanding that much to take on all these persons coming from the formal education sector”, Mr. Frimpong added.
Also on the program, Seth Twum Akwaboah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Ghana Industries, stated that the manufacturing sector prioritizes graduates with skills over those with higher levels of education.
“So don’t think that because you have a PhD, automatically you should command this level of salary and working condition”, he explained.
“For us, it’s about the skills and what you are bringing to the business and the manufacturing firms”, he added.