Ghana has a 67.3% adult literacy rate, with a 61.2% female literacy rate compared to 73.2% for men (2010). The official language is English, along with a further eight main national languages, although overall over 100 languages and dialects are spoken in the country. French and Hausa are two other major languages whose use has grown. Around 3% of adults aged 18-21 participate in tertiary education.
According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey-Round Five (GLSS 5), males have a slightly higher economic activity rate at 54.9%, than females at 53.4%. Overall, the economic activity rate in rural areas is higher than in urban areas. The dominant employment sector, in which the majority of the working population is employed (55.8%), is agriculture followed by trading (15.2%) and manufacturing (10.9%). However, the highest hourly wage rates are found in financial services.
The government and labour unions, together with employers, have an important influence in the labour sector through the determination of the minimum wage by the Tripartite Committee. This is responsible for shaping the structure of wages in the formal wing of the labour market. Prominent trading and export agencies are the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited, Ghana Export Promotion Council, the Ghana National Procurement Agency Limited.
There are numerous employment agencies. Some large recruitment companies operating in Ghana are African Bagg Recruitment, L’aine Services Ltd, Jobs in Ghana, The Capital Group Ghana and Rakes Company Ltd. Foreigners seeking employment in Ghana must obtain a work permit or immigrant quota from the Ghana Immigration Service.
The ratio of women to men in the labour force is relatively strong according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (2012-13), which found the ratio to be 0.95 women to every man, placing it 10th out of 144 countries.
Labour-employer relations in Ghana tend slightly more towards confrontation than cooperation, with the World Economic Forum giving the country a score of 4.2 out of 7, based on 1 as the highest degree of cooperation. This found it 76th out of 144 countries, with a slightly higher degree of cooperation than the world mean of 4.3.
The country operates in a middling position in relation to the extent to which pay in the country is related to productivity. The Global Competitiveness Report gives the country a score of 3.6 out of 7, in which 1 represents a country where pay is not related to productivity.
The Report also ranks Ghana’s labour market as fairly flexible in terms of hiring and firing workers, with a score of 4.5 out of 7, with 7 representing a nation in which hiring and firing practices are flexibly determined by employers.
The country is again in middling territory with respect to the degree to which it retains and attracts talented people. The Report gives it a value of 3.6 out of 7, with the highest value indicating that there are many opportunities for talented people within the country. This places it just above the world mean of 3.5 and 53rd out of 144 countries.
