Introduction

Generally, the development of a District is based on the production of goods and services, and relevant to the production process is the human capital of the District. Although all persons irrespective of age and sex consume goods and services produced, only a section of the total population produces them. This is the working population often referred to as the “employed?. The type of economic activity pursued is influenced by the nature of the economy and level of socio-economic development (Hull, 2009).

In sum, the larger the size of the employed population, the more wealth is created, leading to improvement in the general well-being of the population. Over the years, a number of job opportunities have been created in the public and private sectors through a wide range of economic activities and North Gonja District is no exception.

Information on the economic activity status of the population is relevant for planning and decision-making at the District level. The 2010 Population and Housing Census provided data on the economic characteristics of the population in the North Gonja District for such analysis.

Economic Activity Status

Table 4.1 indicates that out of the total population of 22,680 aged 15 years and older in the North Gonja District, males are 48.2 percent while females are 51.8 percent. Of the economically active group, males constitute 52.1 percent while females make up the remaining 47.9 percent. Table 4.1 also shows that the employed population comprises 52.3 percent males and 47.7 percent females, indicating that the proportion of employed males is higher than that for employed females. With respect to the unemployed population, however, a higher proportion (64.8%) is made up of females than males (35.2%).

This may be due to the fact that the major economic activities in the District such as farming, fishing and weaving are all male-dominated. Consistent with these results is the observation from Table 4.1 that a lower proportion of the males (35.3%) compared to the females (64.7%) is in the economically inactive.

Among the economically not active population, Table 4.1 further shows that home duties are virtually dominated by females (80.6%) compared to males (19.4%), a situation which obviously arises from the cultural set-up of the people in this District where most females are relegated to attending to household chores including taking care of the kitchen.

Economic activity status by age

Table 4.2 illustrates that three in four of persons 15 years and older in the District are employed, less than one percent is unemployed and 23.2 percent is economically not active. In terms of sex, a higher proportion of the males (82.4%) than the females (69.9%) are employed. In contrast, the females (28.9%) are more likely to be economically not active compared to their male counterparts (17.0%).

The pattern of employed people also varies somewhat by age where the very young population (15-19 years) and the elderly (65 year and older) are less likely to be employed but more likely to be economically not active compared to persons 20-59 years. This is similar either among the male or female population in the District such. Again, at all ages, the proportion of the male population that is employed is relatively higher than the females. In contrast, a higher proportion of females than males are economically not active within each age group in the district.

The North Gonja District is well endowed with rich arable lands and so the major economic activities include farming, cattle rearing and trading. Major crops cultivated include maize, millet, groundnuts, soya beans, rice and sorghum. Fishing is done in the White Volta River. The District is also noted for its rich smock weaving in Ghana which serves as a tourist attraction. There are salt deposits on the White Volta just around the District capital, but can only be mined during the dry season.

The District has three functional markets at Mankarigu, Lingbinsi and Tarri which serve as sources of revenue generation for the District Assembly. The main means of transportation for the people is the use of motor bikes, bicycles and 5 tractor alongside some commercial vehicles. The tourist?s sites in the district are the Bawena Range, Kpariya waterfall and the beautiful smock weaving in Daboya.

Occupation

Occupation in the 2010 census is described as the job a person spent his/her time doing in the past 7 days preceding the census night. It looks at the main job/task a person is performing. Table 4.3 indicates that skilled agricultural and forestry is the dominant occupation in the District and employs about four in five of the employed persons enumerated in the District. It is followed by craft and related trade workers and services and sales workers. Each of the remaining occupational groups provides jobs for relatively small number of employed persons in the District.

The distribution of employed persons, however, tends to vary by sex with males dominating in some of the occupations while in others the females are in the majority. The male-dominated occupations are clerical support workers (100%), plant and machine operators and assemblers (97.4%), professionals (68.0%) and skilled agricultural 41 forestry and fishery workers (56.1%), On the other hand, females dominate in service and sales workers (88.5%), elementary occupations (70.9%), managers (61.7%) and craft and related trades (52.2%).