Close to 900,000 children aged 5 to 17 years engaged in employment work – GSS

The 2023 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey indicates that over 1.1 million children aged five to 17 years were involved in different forms of work in the fourth quarter of 2023, which represents one in every 10 (10.3%) children in this age range.

Among these children, about 893,000 are involved in employment work, which is mostly paid work.

The Ghana Statistical Service made this known in a statement issued on June 3 on child work to mark the World Day Against Child Labour.

The World Day Against Child Labour, observed annually on June 12th, aims to raise awareness and prompt action to combat child labour globally. This year’s theme, “Let’s Act on Our Commitments: End Child Labour,” calls for intensified efforts to fulfil pledges to eliminate child labour and protect children’s rights.

“More of the children who are involved in different forms of work are males (56%). Almost half a million (458,443) of these working children are not attending school comprising 68,500 who have never attended school and 389,943 who attended school in the past.”

“Urban areas account for over a quarter (309,199:28%) of working children, while rural areas have a significantly higher proportion, with almost three-quarters (795,175;72%),” it stated.

The Service indicated that from a regional perspective, Ashanti (13.6%) accounts for the highest percentage of children working, followed by Bono East (12.1 %), and then Northern (11.8%).

“The Ahafo Region (0.8%), Greater Accra (1.6%) and Western North (1.8) have the lowest percentages of working children. A breakdown of the forms of work reveals that 35.4 percent of children worked as family help, followed by farmwork (31.2%), unpaid trainees (11.7%), and own use production (7.3%).”

“Also, 6.2 percent of children were engaged in non-farm work, 5.3 percent in wage work and 2.9 percent involved in domestic, non-productive agriculture, voluntary work or apprentice work,” it stated.

The GSS said that elementary occupations pre-dominate the occupational landscape for working children, representing 60.4 percent, followed by craft and trade-related work (19.8%) and then skilled agricultural, forestry, and fish-related work (17.7%).

“Service and sales workers (1.7%), Plant and machine operators, and assemblers (0.2%) and Manager (0.1%) account for the least working children. The services sector employs nine in 10 (91.7%) of the working children, while agriculture and industry engage 4.8 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively,” it added.

The GSS again said that eight in 10 (80.4%) of working children are involved in contributing family work, both in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.

“The second most common employment status for children is unpaid apprenticeship, which constitutes 11.7 percent. Additionally, 1.9 percent of working children are self-employed, 0.5 percent are paid employees and 4.9 percent of working children fall under other employment categories,” it added.