Professor H Kwasi Prempeh has rejected the idea that lowering or strictly enforcing retirement ages is an effective way to solve unemployment, describing the logic as overly simplistic and disconnected from how labour systems actually function.
In his interview with TV3 monitored by MyNewsGh, Prof Prempeh cautioned against framing retirement policy as a mechanism for job creation. “You don’t use retirement age that way,” he said, pushing back against the assumption that older workers stepping aside automatically creates opportunities for younger people.
He explained that workforce mobility is far more complex than a one-out-one-in arrangement.
“The 80-year-old who leaves the classroom is not going to be replaced by the guy who is looking for a job. It doesn’t work that way easily,” he noted, urging policymakers to examine employment challenges more holistically.
While acknowledging that retirement does affect movement within institutions, Prof Prempeh insisted it should not be treated as an employment valve.
“Retirement age has some connections with mobility through the system, but let us not use it as an employment kind of valve,” he said, warning that such thinking risks distorting policy decisions.
