Introduction

The overall development of every society depends largely on the availability of goods and services produced. Central to this provision of the goods and services is the human capital available in such a community. Every individual irrespective of sex, age or social standing survives on the consumption of these goods and services which may not be produced by all people but by a few who are engaged in sections of the economy. In fact, the type of economic activities undertaken by people in any economic environment is influenced and driven by the nature of economic activities prevailing and socio-economic factors. Indeed, the wealth of all societies is determined by the number of its people engaged in economic activities to create it thereby becoming a determinant factor of the general wellbeing of the people.

In the Kwahu West Municipality, a number of economic opportunities and resources are available that the people exploit for their living. Among the various economic activities are: farming, trading and manufacturing, mining, provision of services etc. This chapter presents information on the economic characteristics of the municipality. These include economic activity status, occupation, industry, and employment status and employment sector.

Economic Activity Status

Table 4.1 shows that a little over 70 percent (70.4%) of the population 15 years and older are economically active (labour force). For both sexes, 71.3 percent of males and 69.3 percent of females 15 years and older are economically active. Of the total labour force, 95.3 percent are employed. Nearly 30 percent (29.6%) of the population 15 years and older are economically not active group Municipality. In terms of both sexes, female constitute 30.3 percent compared to 28.7 percent of the male economically not active.

Age and activity status

From Table 4.2, it can be observed that the age group of 15-19 recorded the highest proportion of 78.2 percent of being economically not active in the Municipality. This stems from the fact that most people under this category are in school especially at the pre-secondary and secondary levels. About 16.3 percent of 15-19 year age group are unemployed. For 20-24 age group, 11.9. percent are unemployed.

In general, employment in all the age groups is evenly distributed except that the age category of 65 years and above has a high number of people not engaged in any economic activity probably due to old age and retirement of the aged.

Occupation

Occupation refers to the type of work one is engaged in at an establishment where he/she works with. In the census, this was asked only of persons who worked for at least one hour during the seven days before census night, and those who did not work but had a job to return to as well as those who were unemployed but had worked before. All persons who worked during the seven days before the census night were classified by the kind of work they were engaged in. The emphasis was on the work the person did during the reference period.

From table 4.3, it can be observed that skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers account for 29.6 percent. The service and sales workers also account for 26.8 percent of the employed in the Municipality. In both occupations, males dominate in the former while females dominate in the latter representing 34.9 percent and 39.9 percent respectively

Table 4.4 indicates employed population 15 years and older by industry and sex in the Municipality. From the Table agriculture, forestry and fishing, takes the highest proportion of all persons employed in the industrial sector employing 30.6 percent of the economically active population aged 15 years and older. Another industry that engages more people is wholesale and retail trade (26.0%). The Table also shows that the proportion of females who are into wholesale and retail (34.8%) is higher than their male counterparts (16.2%). However, the proportion of males who are in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector (36.7%) is higher than females (25.1%). The Table further shows that less than 10 persons aged 15 years and older are engaged in real estate activities and activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies.