SEX DIFFERENCES IN EMPLOYMENT IN GHANA

ABSTRACT

Employment promotes economic growth and development in a country. It plays a key role in the eradication of poverty among citizens in a country. This thesis is a quantitative study research which uses the Ghana Living Standard Survey round seven (GLSS, 2016/2017) to study sex differences in employment status and sector in Ghana. The sample size for this study was 22,378 representing both the employed and the unemployed and a sub-sample of 19,054 employed were selected out of those who are employed who are either in the formal or informal sector. The study focused on respondents aged between 18 to 60 years (who were considered to be within the active working age). Graphs, frequencies and percentages were used to describe the characteristics of the respondents at the univariate level. The study used bivariate analysis to examine the association between the predictor variables and employment status and sector using a chi-square test. The binary logistic regression model was used at the multivariate level to examine how the predictor variables correlated with employment status and employment sector. The results indicated that there were 85% of respondents who were employed out of which 31% of the respondents were in the formal sector and 69% were in the informal sector with males dominating the formal sector. All the variables selected namely sex of the respondents, marital status, age, place of residence, religion, education, region, except literacy level were statistically significant in predicting employment status in the study which predicted whether one would be employed or not. The results from the study showed that men were more likely to be employed than women. The results of the study for the employment sector showed that sex, place of residence, marital status, age, religion, education and literacy level were statistically significant in predicting the employment sector one could be found in Ghana. In relation to the sector, men were more likely to be in the formal sector than women. Inter alia, results of the study for employment status showed that urban dwellers were less likely to be employed as compared to rural dwellers but urban dwellers were more likely to be in the formal sector of employment. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations are made by putting in place measures to ensure that women in particular enter the formal sector of employment which maybe applicable to other developing countries.

Keywords: Employment Status, Employment Sector, Formal Sector, Informal Sector, Males, Females ,Men, Women, Labour outcome