About 270,000 jobs have been created since the government came to power three year ago, even as the government renews it’s commitment to resource the private sector.

President Kufuor who announced this while delivering his State of the Nation Address at Parliament House yesterday in Accra, said 98,278 jobs were created in the formal sector of the economy while the informal sector registered 160,000.

“Indirectly, many more unemployed must have benefited from our policies especially in the rural areas” he emphasized.

He noted that skill acquisition is essential to addressing the unemployment in the country. To this end, he said, the Skill Training and Employment Placement Programme (STEP) under the Ministry of Employment and Manpower Development was instituted to train more youth to make them competitive in the employment market.

“Great strides are being made under this programme and it is expected that 23,000 youth will be trained this year in various vocations.

“A number of them will be assisted through the Micro-Finance Scheme to set up business on their own,” he said.