Annual report on the Gold Coast / Colonial Office.

Great Britain. Colonial Office.

Date:: [1951]

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Gold Coast / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

13/130 (page 11)

Chapter 2 : Occupations, Wages and Labour Organisation As far as can be ascertained from published returns, the number of persons in wage-earning employment at the end of the year had risen by nearly 30,000 to some 185,000 people. Since this increase results largely from improved coverage it is not possible to state to what extent the Gold Coast’s labour force did in fact increase. It is certain, however, that a number of small employers failed to render the returns required and that therefore the true figure for those engaged in wage- earning employment is greater than that shown. The Government Labour Department maintains an employment service which has continued to expand during the year. Although almost 20,500 vacancies were notified to the Exchanges, only about 7,000 were filled. It is thought that the reason for the failure to fill the vacancies was a lack of understanding of the functions of an employ¬ ment exchange service. Thus some applicants over-stated their own qualifications, while some employers only turned to the labour exchanges when they had failed to obtain their own labour. Registration of both employed and unemployed persons for purposes of identification and employment was continued and by 31st December, 1951, 120,019 persons had registered and had been issued with regis¬ tration certificates to enable them to keep a record of their employment. During August and September a special registration scheme of unemployed persons was undertaken with the object of ascertaining, if possible, the number of persons unemployed throughout the country. In this period about 24,500 persons registered themselves as unem¬ ployed of whom about 4,500 were women. These figures cannot be said to relate to total unemployment since many persons, particularly women, who registered as unemployed were in fact already self- employed as petty traders, market sellers or housewives or engaged in a family business for which no specific remuneration was paid in the form of wages, while many others in rural areas were engaged in family businesses of farming and fishing but were not actually engaged in wage-earning employment. Again many of those who registered as unemployed were in fact unwilling to perform wage-earning manual labour which they considered to be beneath their dignity, or else they did not wish to move to areas outside the main towns. Others who registered were in fact too old and feeble to take up paid employment, while in some cases it was found that employed persons registered themselves as unemployed in the hope of obtaining better jobs. It must be borne in mind that most of the people who declared them¬ selves as unemployed were in fact supported by their families in accord¬ ance with native custom. In general wages did not alter substantially, although there was a tendency for wages for unskilled labour in rural areas to be increased in order to attract workers there.