During the State of the Nation Address on Friday, February 27, 2026, President John Mahama claimed that data from the Ghana Statistical Service shows that one million people found employment between the first and third quarters of 2025.
He stated:
“According to the Ghana Statistical Service, over one million Ghanaians found employment between Quarter 1 and Quarter 3 of 2025.”
However, a careful review of official data from the Ghana Statistical Service does not support this claim.
Data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey shows that in the fourth quarter of 2024, 12.73 million Ghanaians were employed.
In the first quarter of 2025, employment rose to 13.09 million. It increased further to 13.44 million in the second quarter before dipping marginally to 13.42 million in the third quarter.
A simple calculation provides clarity.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, employment increased by 360,000 in the first quarter of 2025.
In the second quarter of 2025, employment increased by another 350,000.
In the third quarter, employment declined by 20,000.
Adding the gains from the first two quarters of 2025 gives a total of 710,000 additional employed persons.
If one factors in the third quarter decline, the net increase across the three quarters is 690,000.
In either case, the number does not reach one million.
The President’s claim that over one million people found employment between Q1 and Q3 of 2025 is therefore false.
When presented with this data, the Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, offered a different explanation.
He argued that the figures were derived from comparing average employment levels. Speaking on JoyFm’s Top Story, he said:
“We need to see the full gamut of data to extrapolate the figures and we do have the full gamut of data. Indeed, the average job creation or the average number of people in employment as of the end of 2024 was 14.2 million. The average number of people in employment between quarter 1 and quarter 3 of 2025 was 15.3 million. So if you do a simple analysis, you get 1.2 million. That’s the difference. So that is where the figures emanate from. This is Ghana service data.”
Again, official data tells a different story.
The average employment level for 2024 was 12.29 million, not 14.2 million.
The average employment for the first three quarters of 2025 was 13.3 million, not 15.3 million.
The difference between these averages is approximately 1.01 million.
While this figure aligns with the President’s one million claim, using averages to imply that one million people found jobs within a specific period is misleading.
Averages compare levels, not flows.
The correct measure of how many people actually found employment between Q1 and Q3 of 2025 is the net increase over that period.
That figure is 690,000, not one million or 1.2 million.
Verdict: False
