Ghana's economy grew by 6% in 2025 to reach GHS1.4 trillion, but the growth has not created enough decent jobs, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said on Thursday.
About two million young people are not in employment, education or training. Women make up more than 60% of that group. Almost one in three jobseekers aged 15 to 24 cannot find work.
The figures come from Ghana in Numbers 2025, the first edition of the GSS publication. Unemployment averaged 12.8% in the first three quarters of 2025, down from 14.6% in 2023. Labour force participation rose from 67.1% in 2022 to 74.5% in 2025.
Businesses are multiplying faster than jobs. The GSS counted 2.64 million business establishments in 2024, almost three times the 2014 figure, but the number of people working in them only doubled. Only 7.7% are formal, nine in 10 employ one to five people, and just 4,874 have 100 or more workers.
Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu said the wider economy had improved. Inflation fell from 23.8% in December 2024 to 5.4% in December 2025, and gross international reserves reached $13.8 billion, or 5.7 months of import cover. But food insecurity rose from 37.7% in 2024 to 39.8% in 2025, affecting an estimated 13 million people.
Dr Iddrisu urged policies that make growth more job-rich, including help for informal firms to formalise and wider access to private-sector credit, which he put at 7.4% of GDP. Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem said the government's GHS10 billion New Economy policy, due in the 2027 Budget, will target nine sectors with strong job potential.