Post-independent Ghana has conducted population and housing censuses on four occasions, namely, 1960, 1970, 1984, 2000 and 2010.
These exercises were able to reveal the demographics of the country, as well as the status of the people in terms of the houses and conditions in which they live.
In spite of the resources spent on these exercises, the state has not been able to determine unemployment figures in exact terms.
We have always been used to estimates of unemployed people, although the statistics of the population are known.
It is difficult to determine whether the unemployment figures are left out deliberately in order not to scare the people with the alarming figures.
What is worrying is that whereas the state is able to tell the number of people employed in the formal sector, officials of the Ghana Statistical Service are not able to tell us the number of people in the informal sector.
Unless the officials tell us the censuses do not capture the unemployment rate, it is difficult to appreciate why the state will spend money to count people but will not capture unemployed people in society, although figures on the employed are known.
The Daily Graphic is not amused at all that the various censuses were not able to capture the rate of unemployment in the country, although the breakdown in terms of professional groupings, ethnic and religious affiliations are established.
We recall that one of the censuses nearly brought tension between two religious denominations because one of them was not happy with the census conclusions.
Censuses all over the world, if not handled properly, have led to confusion because somehow they are linked to resource allocation.
A neighbouring country postponed its census for many years because of fear that it could cause disaffection in society.
Our inability to determine the number of unemployed has not helped the government to determine the skills the youth have and how they can fit into the job market.
It is refreshing, however, that at long last the government has put in place structures to collect data on the distribution of employment, unemployment and individual accidents under the Labour Market Information System (LMIS) project.
The LMIS seeks to identify current and future job market opportunities and provide analysis of the labour market based on the economic development of the country.
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Nii Armah Ashietey, said another advantage of the system was that it would help education providers align course provision with labour market needs through the analysis of labour market trends.
The next census is a few years away and we cannot wait till 2020 to conduct another census that captures the unemployment rate in the country in order to create jobs to cater for the unemployed.
However, the Daily Graphic hopes the LMIS will be able to capture the exact unemployment rate with the view to expanding the economy to take care of the needs of all, especially those who have gone through skills training.
