The existence of a dedicated ministry for youth development has not translated into sufficient employment opportunities for young Ghanaians, National Youth Chairman of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana, Richmond Dormanya Choflie, has said.

Choflie said continued unemployment among graduates, including trained nurses and teachers, showed that the country’s youth employment challenge remained unresolved despite government programmes and institutions focused on young people.

“It’s not because we are still getting a lot of young people unemployed,” Choflie said on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (12 August) when asked whether having a dedicated youth ministry would guarantee greater attention to youth issues.

He said graduates were still spending years at home after completing their education, national service and professional training while vacancies existed in underserved communities.

“We still have schools at the remote areas. We have CHPS compounds at the remote areas who need people to work,” he said.

Choflie argued that government needed to address the gap between the number of young people completing education and the availability of decent employment opportunities.

He said the situation was also affecting the future of organised labour because young workers form an important pipeline for trade unions.

As young workers move beyond the age bracket for youth wings and into the broader union structure, he said, the failure to bring new workers into the labour market could eventually weaken youth representation within organised labour.

“If people are passing the youth bracket, you join the main union and government is not employing new people to more young people to take the places, meaning it’s going to be a time that the youth wing will not even have numbers,” he said.

Choflie also criticised the government’s budget review for what he said was insufficient attention to the employment needs of graduates seeking decent work.

He said the focus should not simply be on creating any form of employment but on providing jobs that correspond with the qualifications and skills of young workers.

He cited nurses and teachers who, despite completing their training and national service, continue to wait for employment.

Choflie said the problem was particularly concerning for the trade union movement because today’s young workers are expected to become tomorrow’s union leaders.

He described the youth wing of the TUC and its affiliated unions as a critical part of the labour movement and said young workers were adapting to technological changes and the evolving world of work.

“The youth holds the union in future and now we are not left out,” he said.

He called for greater attention to youth employment as government expands policies aimed at addressing unemployment and economic inclusion.

Choflie said the effectiveness of youth-focused institutions should ultimately be measured by whether young people are gaining access to decent and sustainable employment.

His comments come amid wider debate over youth unemployment, skills development and the government’s 24-hour economy policy, which is being promoted as a strategy to expand economic activity and create jobs.