Occupational Distribution

The prime occupation in the District is agriculture which employs about, 66.4 percent of the active labour force. Services employ 8.2 percent of the district active labour force whilst industry and commerce absorb 0.6 and 4.9 percent respectively.

However, 4.9 percent are in schools, 2 percent under-going apprenticeship training whilst the remaining 5.3 percent are unemployed. It is of interest to note that whilst the number of people engaged in agriculture had been decreasing since the 1970s that of service, industry and commerce have been steadily increasing.

The steady increases in the number of commercial activities in the district could be partly attributed to improvement of surface accessibility from Sunyani to Wamfie, the District Capital and the increasing volume of trade in the major market centres in the District namely, Wamfie, Wamanafo, and Kyeremasu.

The increase in the number of people in industry is due to the resource base of the District, which supports the establishment of small-scale industries like cassava processing, carpentry, brick burning and palm oil extraction etc. This actually demonstrates the fact that the District’s economy is growing and as the economy grows, agriculture is shedding labour to others sectors of the District’s economy such as commerce and industry.

The implication of these phenomena for development is that the District is gradually moving away from over dependence on agriculture and if this trend continues, poverty levels in the District will go down considerably in the near future.

Service Sector

Out of the 8.2% of the service sector, Civil and Public Servants takes 0.9%, Education Service 2.2%, whilst the informal service sector; dressmaking dominates with a percentage of 1.7%, hairdressing taking 1.7%, transport and communication accounting for 1.3% with others like driving, banking taking 0.5%. Majority of the people employed in the informal service sector in the District are into their own businesses. This implies that the private sector should be the centre of focus in efforts poverty reduction in the District.