The number of jobs advertised in selected print and online media, which gauges labour demand in the economy, increased in the third quarter of 2023 relative to the same period in 2022.

In total, 8,455 job adverts were recorded in the third quarter of 2023, as compared with 7,250 for quarter 3, 2022.

This indicates an improvement of 16.6 percent (year-on-year).

According to the Bank of Ghana's Quarterly Economic Bulletin, the number of job vacancies, however, advertised in the review period declined by 3.3% from 8,740 recorded in quarter 2, 2023.

The Services sector maintained its dominance as the leading job-providing sector in the economy, accounting for 78.4% of total job adverts recorded in quarter 3, 2023. This is compared with its share of 79.0% recorded in quarter 3, 2022.

Industry followed with a share of 15.9%, down from 17.1% in quarter 3, 2022, while the Agriculture Sector accounted for 5.7% of the job adverts during the period compared with 3.9% of total job adverts recorded for the corresponding quarter of 2022.

Further analysis revealed that the main requirements for skilled employees were tertiary education qualifications and a minimum of three years of working experience.

This category, classified as Professionals and Technicians, collectively accounted for 55.1% of total jobs advertised in Q3 2023, relative to 50.4% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022.

This was followed by the categories classified as Sales & Other Service Workers (25.5% in Q3 2023 vs. 29.4% in Q32022), Artisans & Machine Operators (11.2% vs. 10.2%), Secretarial & Clerical Staff (7.5% vs. 7.6%) and Others (0.7% vs. 2.4%).