Introduction

Population census is one of the most vital sources of information for labour and employment statistics in most countries. The census results in the past have provided data on Ghana’s labour market and a major source of information for planning in the country. As a result of the very important position of labour in the production process, knowledge of the current size and characteristics of the labour force and its variation over time is vital for policy interventions for maximum development and utilization of these human resources. This chapter discusses data on the economic activity status of the population, occupation, industry, employment status and sector of the employed population in the District.

Economic Activity Status

The question on economic activity was asked of all persons five years and older who engaged in any economic activity for pay (cash or kind) or profit or family gain for at least one hour during the seven days preceding census night. Table 4.1 presents the population distribution of persons aged 15 years and older by sex and economic activity status in Nkoranza North District. About 80 percent of the population 15 years and older are economically active while 20.1 percent are not. Among the economically active population a majority (97.6%) is employed with only 2.4 percent unemployed.

The proportion of males 5 years and older who are employed (97.9%) is slightly higher than the same proportion for females (97.3%). However, the proportion for economically not active is higher among females (22.0%) than males (18.1%) Among the economically not active population, full time education, household chores and too old/young to work constitutes the main reasons for inactivity for both males and females. However, there marked differences by sex: The proportion of males (61.4%) in full time education is much than that for the females (35.5%); while the percentage of females (31.8%) performing household chores is nearly two and a half times that of males (13.5%), and proportion of males (9.6%) too young/old to work is a little more than half of the proportion for females (18.1%).

 

Table 4.2 shows employed population 15 years and older by sex, age group and activity status. The data depict that from age groups 30-34 years to 60-64 years the proportion of their employed population do not fall below 90 percent with 45-49 years age group recording the highest (96.2%). Although the 15-19 years age group has the least proportion of the employed among the various age groups, the 25-29 years age group has the highest proportion for the unemployed (3.9%). The Table further shows that the proportion of unemployed population for either males (4.7%) or females (5.5%) in age group 20-24 is also the highest in the Nkoranza North District.

As expected, a higher proportion of persons who are economically not active (54.4%) are in the younger age group for both sex and male or female only 52.4% and 56.7% respectively.

According to the 2010 PHC, occupation refers to the type of work a person was engaged in during the seven days preceding Census Night. The emphasis was on the work the person did during the reference period but not what he/she was trained to do. Table 4.3 presents information on employed persons aged 15 years and older by occupation and sex in the district. It shows that workers in skilled agriculture, forestry, and fishing (81.5%) constitute the largest occupational group, followed by service and sales workers (7.0%) and craft and related trades workers (4.3%). On the other hand, only small proportions of employed persons in the District are in the technical and associated professionals (0.4%) and managerial (0.5%) categories.About 84 percent of males and 79 percent of females who are 15 years and older are in skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers.

The proportion of males (3.4%) who are professional is higher than the same proportion for females (2.0%). On the other hand, the proportion of females engaged as service and sales workers (11.8%) is about five times that of their male (2.3%) counterparts. Females (4.6%) are more likely to undertake craft and related trades than males (3.9%) in the District. There are also more male Technicians and associate professionals (0.6%) and elementary occupation (2.6%) than females (0.2% and 1.4%) respectively.