Introduction

The development of any country is based on the production of goods and services. Critical to the production process is the human capital of the country. Although all persons irrespective of age and sex consume goods and services produced, only the working population often referred to as the ‘employed’ produce them. Other things being equal, the larger the employed population, the more wealth is created leading to the general well-being of the population. This chapter analyses economic characteristics of the population aged 15 years and older in the district including the economic activity status, occupation, industry, employment status, and employment sector.

 Economic Activity Status

Table 4.1 shows the economic activity status of persons aged 15 years and older by sex in KassenaNankana West District (KNWD). From the table, the total population of persons aged 15 years and older according to the 2010 PHC was 43,850. Out of the total number, 74.0 percent was economically active and 26.0 percent not economically active. The figures suggest that there was a larger proportion of potential working population in the district.

Economically Active Population

Of the economically active population, 97.6 percent are employed and 2.4 percent are unemployed. Of those who are employed, 97.6 percent worked for at least an hour in the 7 days preceding the census night; 2.0 percent did not work but have jobs to go back to; and 0.5 percent does voluntary work without pay. For those who are unemployed, 44.4 percent are either worked before or are seeking work and are available for work and 55.6 percent are seeking work for the first time and available for work.

Of the total population of males aged 15 years and older in KNWD, 75.4 percent are economically active while the proportion of economically active females is 72.7 percent.

Table 4.2 shows the distribution of the population 15 years and older in KNWD by age group, sex and activity status. It further disaggregates the data into males and females Out of the total population of 45,850 who are 15 years and over in the district, about 72.2 percent are employed, 1.8 percent is unemployed and 26.0 percent are economically not active. The age-group with the highest proportion of employed persons is 40-44 representing 93.3 percent, 1.3 percent of them are unemployed while 5.5 percent are economically not active. In all, 73.0 Percent of males are employed compared with 70.9 percent females. Again, 27.3 percent of females are economically not active compared with 24.6 percent males.

Occupation

The occupation data presented in Table 4.3 show that 81.7 percent of employed population aged 15 years and older are skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers, 5.9 percent are craft and related trades workers, 5.6 percent service and sales workers and 2.2 percent professionals.

The largest proportion (85.5%) of the employed male population aged 15 years and older are skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers, 3.2 percent are professionals, 2.8 percent are service and sales workers and 2.7 percent are craft related trades workers. For employed 40

females aged 15 years and older, just as males, majority (78.1%) are skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers, 8.9 percent craft and related trades workers and 8.2 percent service and sales workers while 1.3 percent are professionals.