COVID-19: Gov’t interventions restore 2,849 jobs

Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations says government’s interventions in the easing of restrictions has restored 2,849 out of 11,657 job losses due to COVID-19, representing 24 per cent.

Mr Awuah said the incidence of job losses was highest among micro-sized enterprises, representing 36 per cent and lowest in large scale establishments, which represented 23 per cent.

In the economic sectors, the Minister said the highest incidence of job losses of 65 per cent was recorded in the other services like the recruitment agencies, media and laundry services, followed by construction of 49 per cent, hotels and restaurants 45 per cent and private sector education, 43 per cent.

The shipping or the maritime sub-sector together with finance, agriculture, health, and social work suffered the least incidence of job losses of one per cent.

The Minister who announced this on Wednesday during the meet-the-press series in Accra said the figures were results from a Pilot Labour Market Survey commissioned by the Ministry to assess the impact of COVID-19 on job losses and pay cuts.

The survey covered 878 enterprises across the country and involved a total of 44,040 employees.

The survey covered micro (1-4 employees), small (5-29 employees), medium (30-99 employees), and large (100 above employees) enterprises.

The Minister said according to results of the survey, 17,685 out of 44,040, representing 40 per cent workers suffered pay cuts, adding that, pay cuts were highest among medium scale establishments with 46 per cent of workers affected with lowest among small scale enterprises of 38 per cent.

He said over 50 per cent of workers in the construction and services sectors suffered pay cuts, and between 29-42 per cent of workers in manufacturing, entertainment and events, sports, hotels and restaurants as well as mining also suffered pay cuts.

The survey showed that pay cuts were lowest in the finance sub sector of five per cent, followed by shipping or maritime 18.9 per cent.

On establishments that adopted pay-cut strategies to keep workers on the payroll, the survey said 21 per cent reduced wages by 10 per cent or less involving 3,870 workers.

The Minister said 37 per cent of establishments also reduced wages by 10-30 per cent and 29 per cent of them reduced wages by 30-50 per cent .

The pay-cuts, according to the survey affected 11,833 workers, stressing that 1,982 workers from about 13 per cent of the establishments reduced workers’ earnings by more than 50 per cent.