Over the years, Nigeria has been seen to be battling with a steady increase in the number of unemployment cases in the country.
“With almost a steady rise from about 4.3 percent in 1970 to 6.4 percent in 1980, This fluctuated around 6.0 per cent until 1987 when it rose to 7.0 per cent, Structural Adjustment Program was brought in place by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1986 to tackle unemployment challenge. This was a bit effective as unemployment rate declined from 7.0 per cent in 1987, to as low as 1.9 per cent in 1995. After this, it rose to 2.8 per cent in 1996, and has been growing worse since, hovering between 2.8 and 13.1 per cent between 1996 and 2000" Adekola, et al. (2016).
This upward trend seems to be never-ending and currently, in the second quarter of 2020 the unemployment rate stood at 27.1% which indicates that about 21,764,614 (21.7 million) Nigerians remain unemployed. Even though, the federal government had put so many policies in place in the past to checkmate these rise in the unemployment rates none has seem to be yeilding the desired result.
However, despite been marked as the biggest economy in Africa and the most populous Black nation in the world, with a current population of about 207 million (207,627,725) people and a yearly change of 2.58 percent as at the time of this publication. One wouldn't help but wonder if her ever-growing population may be the "SOLE" cause of her's high and continuous growth of unemployment rate that plagues her.
We would like to list some causes gotten from secondary sources that may be responsible for the increase in the unemployment rate in Nigeria. Note: This list is not a comprehesive one and shouldn't be deem to be all encompassing. Although we listed them out in a particular order that doesn't construed that any one has a direct correlation to unemplement rate in nigeria.
S/No. |
VARIABLES |
FREQUENCY |
PERCENTAGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Rural-Urban Mirgration | 30 | 11.1 |
| 2. | Rapid Population Growth | 20 | 7.4 |
| 3. | Corruption | 50 | 18.5 |
| 4. | Outdated School Curriculum | 20 | 7.4 |
| 5. | Leadership/Managerial Problem | 70 | 25.9 |
| 6. | Poverty | 20 | 7.4 |
| 7. | Lack of employable skills | 8 | 3 |
| 8. | Increase in the supply of educated manpower | 12 | 4.4 |
| 9. | Lack of adequate youth development programs | 40 | 15 |
| Total | 270 | 100 |
Source: Adekola, et al. (2016).
Unemployment is not specific to Sex, Age, Race or Nationality, hence we can say that unemployment and demographic are unrelated.
For the purpose of this project we would be definining some keywords as it relates to population namely:
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Unemployed:Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Persons who were not working and were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been temporarily laid off are also included as unemployed. -
Underemployed: Persons are classified as underemployed if they do not work full time or takes a job that does not reflect their actual training and financial needs.
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Discourage Workers: Discouraged workers are a subset of persons marginally attached to the labor force. The marginally attached are those persons not in the labor force who want and are available for work, and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months, but were not counted as unemployed.
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Displayed Workers: defined as persons 20 years of age and older who lost or left jobs because their plant or company closed or moved, there was insufficient work for them to do, or their position or shift was abolished.
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Contingent workers: Contingent workers are people who do not expect their jobs to last or who reported that their jobs are temporary. They do not have an implicit or explicit contract for continuing employment. Alternative employment arrangements include people employed as independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary help agency workers, and workers provided by contract firms.
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Self-employed: Person who earns a living by working for themself, not as an employee of someone else and not as an owner (shareholder) of a corporation.
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Electronically mediated employment (EME): generally defined as short jobs or tasks that workers find through mobile apps that both connect them with customers and arrange payment for the tasks.
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Employed: Employed persons consist of persons who did any work for pay or profit; persons who did at least 15 hours of unpaid work in a family-operated enterprise; and persons who were temporarily absent from their regular jobs because of illness, vacation, bad weather, industrial dispute, or various personal reasons.
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Not in the labour force: Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. This category includes retired persons, students, those taking care of children or other family members, and others who are neither working nor seeking work.
Source: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (1); The Balance Small Business (2)
This is to help or give you a better understanding on some terms used in this project.
Experienced researches in labour force or employment in Nigeria have recommended serveral solutions such as:
- Good and competent Governance
- Aggressive Emphasis on Entrepreneurial Education.
- More Investment in Youth Intensive Sector (YIS)
- Diversification of the Economy
- Conduive Investment Climate or Enabling Environment
- Value Re-orientation, Honesty, Dignity of labour and Hardwork
We are proposing that since "Lack of adequate youth development programs" and "unemployable skills" are some problems of unemployment. While "value re-orientation and Entrepreneurial Education" are likely solutions to the above problem.
We came up with an idea to develop a portal (both web and mobile) that would educate and connect propective candidate to available jobs thereby making them more qualified and suited for any job opening; While we easy the connection for the job seekers and the recruiter.
The Aim is to create a platorm that would help reduce the unemployment rate in the country and africa at large.
The objective of this project is to make a connection between qualified job seekers and recruiters by leveraging on our core values which is to attract, develop, enhance and retain. This would help us create a dynamic workforce ready for varoius job openings in the economy thereby reducing the unemployment rate.
E-Hub is a proposed employment platform that seeks to help the unemployed and/or the underemployed gain their rightful jobs in Nigeria. For clearity, we would be creating a connection between the would be applicant or job seeker to an organisation seeking to employ them. The portal would be using a point-based index to match approprate candidates to desired jobs that they are qualified for, and for those who are not fully qualified or want to up their skills, we would also provide them with an educational service. For more information visit our documentations on E-HuB.
