Abstract

This study undertook a sociological review of the National Employment Policy of Ghana. Using Seers’ and Todaro’s conceptual models of development, the study employed secondary sources of data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the employment policy. The study found out that the policy has acknowledged the role of infrastructure, macro economic growth, and institutional collaboration, as well as attitudinal and behavioural change as precursors to a high level of employment generation. The study, however, establishes that the national employment policy’s capacity to sustain employment, higher incomes and reduced gender inequality is far from realization because the policy strategies are not properly situated within the past and current global politico-economic contexts, it refuses to appreciate the gender-based culturally imposed structural imbalance in terms of access to land, and it overemphasises a narrow-scoped attitudinal change mechanism to employment generation. The study recommends that the policy should expand its focus on addressing impeding cultural values (attitudes and women’s low access to land) and ensure a mix of incentive and protective regimes for indigenous entrepreneurs. 

Key words: Employment, unemployment, underemployment, informal economy, employment policy.