Introduction

The economic characteristics of any population are important for development planning and policy formulation. They are also development indicators that are largely determined by how governments are able to manage their population and resources in order to provide the needs of their population, and thereby achieving their human development goals. The economic characteristic of a population also helps in examining population and development interrelationship so that appropriate policies can be adopted.

It is against this background that the economic characteristics of the population of the Yilo Krobo Municipality are examined in this chapter. The areas of focus include the economic activity status, occupation, industry and employment status.

Economic activity status

The economic activity questions sought to find out from the individuals whether they engaged in any activity for pay (cash or kind) or profit or family gain for at least one hour during the seven days preceding the census night.

Figure 4.1 shows a graphical representation of economic activity status of population 15 years and older who are employed, unemployed and economically not active in the Yilo Krobo Municipality. The data shows that, 72.1 percent are economically active, with 74 percent representing males and 70.5 percent representing females. The Figure further shows that, 94.1 percent of the economically active, are employed with male (94.8%) and female (93.5%).

Economic activity status of the population

Table 4.1 describes the activity status of the population in the Municipality. This is makeup of the economically active and not economically active persons in the Municipality. The economically active consists of the employed and unemployed. The employed population is made up of those who worked (the worked include voluntary work without pay) within the reference period, as well as those who did not work but had jobs to go back to. The unemployed include those who did not work but had worked before, seeking and available for work and those seeking job for the first time and available for work. The not economically active population is the category of people who did not work, did not seek work and were not available for work.

Table 4.1 shows that more than half (67.6%) of the unemployed are first time job seekers while 32.4 percent had worked before. The population 15 years and older is 55,307 of which 72.1 percent are economically active and 27.9 percent are not economically active. Of the economically active population, 94.1 percent were employed and 5.9 percent were unemployed. Table 4.1 shows that more than half (67.6%) of the unemployed are first time job seekers while 32.4 percent had worked before. Males (94.8%) are more likely to be employed compared to females (93.5%). On the other hand, females (6.5%) are more likely to be unemployed compared to males (5.2%).

Table 4.1 further shows that about half (50.2%) of the not economically active population in the Municipality is attending school full time, followed by 18.2 percent performed household duties. Pensioners and retirees formed the least proportion (3.7%) of the economically not active population. There are disparities between sexes. Whereas 63.2 percent of the male population is in full time education, 40 percent - two-fifth of the female are in full time education. As expected, more females (24.6%) than males (9.8%) did home duties. There were more male retirees (6.4%) than their female counterparts (1.7%).

Economic Activity Status and age groups

Table 4.2 describes population 15 years and older by activity status, age and sex. Of the total population, 72.1 percent are economically active with 67.9 employed. Data in the Table shows that, as age increases, the percentage of those employed also increases. However, majority of the economically active population is observed in 40-44 age group with 91.8 percent employed population. The least economically active is observed in 15-19 age group with only 21.2 percent employed.

With respect to sex distribution, more male of almost 74 percent are economically active with 70 percent employed. However, a majority of the female in the 40-44 age groups are economically active (96.5%) with 95 percent of them employed. This is followed by the 45-49 age group (94.9%). It is worthy to note that, among the female population, the percentage of employment decreases from 89 percent at age 40-44 to as low as 47 percent at age 65 years and above.

Occupation

Occupation largely focuses on specific economic activities that people engage in for their livelihood. In the 2010 PHC, occupation is defined as economic activities that individuals engaged in to earn a living in cash or in kind. Table 4.3 presents the main occupation of employed persons 15 years and older in the Yilo Krobo Municipality.

A higher proportion of the population (41.9%) is engaged in skilled agricultural forestry and fishery. The next occupation is service and sales (21.7%). Followed by craft and related trade, 18.1 % and 7.1 percent are engaged as managers, professionals, and technicians. The least practiced occupation is clerical support, 0.9 percent.

The proportion of males and females in various occupations varies from one occupation to the other. For instance, more males (50.7%) than females (33.6%) are into the skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery work while more females (35.4%) than males (17.2%) are in the service and sales.