Industry refers to the type of product produced or services rendered at the respondent’s workplace. Information was collected only on the main product produced or service rendered in the establishment during the reference period. Table 4.4 shows the employed population 15 years and older by industry and sex. From the Table, agriculture, forestry and fishing, constitute the largest industry employing about more than two-thirds of the workforce aged 15 years and above in the district.

Other major industries offering employment are wholesale and retail including repair of motor vehicles and motor-cycles (5.8%) and manufacturing (3.3%). Given the predominantly agricultural forestry and fishery nature of the district, it is not surprising that wholesale and retail including repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles recorded the second highest; farmers use them as means of transport to and from their various communities to their farms and also the fact that some farm equipment are mechanically operated (e.g. spraying machines).

For females, the proportion in agriculture related occupations is 81.0 percent compared to 85.6 percent in the case of men. Relatively more females (6.4%) than males (4.6%) are associated with the wholesale and retail sectors. The industry statistics reveal that whereas males dominate in the physically demanding jobs, females dominate in the less manual industries.

Employment Status

Table 4.5 presents population 15 years and older by employment status and sex. Majority (54.8%) of the employed population in the district are self-employed without employees. The corresponding proportion for males is 61.0 percent while that of the females is 48.1 percent, confirming the usual observation that males are more likely to be self-employed without employees than females in the country (Ghana Statistical Service, 2005). Those self-employed with employees account for 4.6 percent in respect of employment status. The proportion of males who are self-employed with employees is 4.5 percent while that of females is 4.6 percent.

 

The proportion of employed people who are employees in the district is 7.7 percent. Figure 4.2 depicts the population 15 years and older by employment status and sex. A relatively large proportion of males are employees compared to females. Interestingly, there are more female apprentices (2.2%) than males (1.5%).

Figure 4.2 further shows that relatively large proportion of males (11.2%) are employees compared with females (3.9%). Contributing family workers comprised 57.8 percent while apprentices are 3.0 percent. Contributing female family workers constituted 39.1.6 percent of the employed population while among males the proportion is 18.7 percent.

Employment Sector

Employment sector refers to the sector in which a person works. Table 4.6 and Figure 4.3 show that the private informal sector is the largest employer in the district with 95.6 percent. The proportion of employed females working in the private informal sector is 97.0 percent while that of males was 94.3 percent in 2010. Thus, irrespective of sex, the private informal sector was the dominant employer of the workforce.

Among the workforce, 1.9 percent was employed in the private formal sector with many males (2.2%) than females (1.4%) in the sector. The public sector covering government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) employs 2.1 percent of the total employed population in the district in 2010. The proportion of males and females employed in the public sector is 3.0 percent and 1.2 percent respectively. Because of the absence of international organizations in the district (see Table 4.4), only 1 out of the 25,769 is engaged in this sector.