Fresh Perspectives on Global Unemployment

Unemployment has been on the rising since the end of the second world war when a good number of soldiers returned from the battlefield to meet their wives in the factories. One is said to be unemployed if the individual is of working age and willing to work in his field of specialty and yet there isn't an open opportunity to use his skills in the said sector. As of 22nd July 2023, according to the International Labour Office (ILO), nearly one billion people worldwide, approximately 30% of the entire global workforce, are unemployed or underemployed in industrialized and developing countries alike. And there seems to be no change in this trend as more graduates are coming into the labour force to realize there is no post for them to assume. Unemployment has a different toll on varying economies. In the developed world, the unemployment rate is far lower than in developing countries.

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In Ghana, for instance, there isn't any reliable source of employment data and the global picture painted is a tinge of what is actually happening. For instance, the majority of nurses, physicians, teachers, lab scientists and many other professionals graduate from school and find it difficult to gain access to a qualifying paying job. They later resort to other lower standards of occupation in order to make ends meet. It is no wonder why the youth have lost interest in the education system in the country. It is tailored to producing professionals without positions to hold when they graduate.

In some sense, the pandemic has created an international avenue for healthcare professionals to relocate to international communities where their skills are in demand. Only if these opportunities could be streamlined to help match the underemployed economies that are seeking to employ professionals and the unemployed. Nevertheless, it's an ongoing progress and one day, employment issues will be resolved.

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With all these being said, to be employed is a choice. You choose whether you are willing to work in a particular field or not and as such it is debatable as to who is unemployed. Nonetheless, it is a known fact that man can never be satisfied and we all just have to keep moving little by little. As an unemployed Laboratory Scientist, I choose not to classify myself as unemployed by using hive as a source of employment coupled with my singing career.