ABSTRACT
The issue of graduate unemployment in Nigeria has become a matter of urgent attention, as unemployed graduates tend to be more anxious, depressed and unhappy with their attendant sleeplessness than those with jobs. This situation has not only posed a great challenge to Nigeria’s economy but also retarded the economic growth and development of the country. It is against this background that this study examined graduate unemployment and Nigeria’s economic development. Through a survey method, the study discovered that unemployment in Nigeria is attributable to the fact that employees’ education and skills acquired are inadequate to meet the demands of modem day jobs. This issue has become a phenomenal topic of discourse across professional gatherings in media and commentary reviews, employer surveys, national economic debates, social networks and employee forums. This study, however, recommended among other things that the Government should make provision for bail-out funds for both private and public companies and industries that their collapse or closure have rendered their workforce jobless. The environment should be made conducive to make them function effectively. Government as a matter of urgency needs to address all the operational challenges and threats confronting the manufacturing sectors and other investors in the country.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
It is an indisputable fact that one of the topical issues confronting Nigeria is the problem of graduate unemployment irrespective of the fact that there is over two hundred (200) Universities in Nigeria ranging from Federal to private universities as well as polytechnics, and colleges of education (Ajaegbu, (2012). This assertion is premised on the fact that graduate unemployment in Nigeria has affected youths from a broad spectrum of socioeconomic groups, both the well and less well educated. As a result, it has particularly stricken a substantial fraction of youths from low income backgrounds and limited education.
From the foregoing, it is obvious that graduate unemployment impedes Nigeria’s progress in many ways. Apart from economic waste, it also constitutes danger for political stability (Anyanwu and Iloye 1998). It is disturbing to note that Nigeria’s graduates have limited chances of becoming gainfully employed. It is even more disheartening that the country’s economic condition is such that, it is hardly able to absorb an optimal proportion of the production of its own educational system. Gone were the days when employers go about looking for employees.
It is now the turn of graduate after spending many years in intuitions of higher learning to move from one office to the other seeking non-existent jobs. These days thousands of graduates are found waiting to be interviewed for just one, two or few vacant positions in some organizations or groups. Most people who cannot earn their living are prone to social vices. They look at themselves as second-class citizens for being unable to contribute to the society. The state of unemployment can even lead to depression, low self-esteem, frustration and a number of other negative consequences (Anyanwu and Iloye 1998).
Graduate employment is a crucial issue in Nigeria because the graduate youths constitute a major part of the labour force and they have innovative ideas, which among other factors are important in the development process of the country. A large proportion of the youths however are unemployed. The negative consequences include psychological problems of frustration, depression, hostility and gradual drift of some visible unemployed youths in to all manner of criminal behaviour.
Simply put, unemployment descries the condition of people who are without jobs. The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines the unemployed as numbers of the economically active population who are without work but available for and seeking work, including people who have lost their jobs and those who have voluntarily left work (World bank, 1998).
The menace of unemployment has increasingly been recognized as one of the socio economic problems currently facing many developing countries like Nigeria and Africa as a whole. Graduate Unemployment in Nigeria is indeed a pathetic situation that calls for urgent attention, to address these socio-economic effects accompanied by it. It is against this background that this study set out to examine the effects of graduate unemployment on Nigeria’s economic development from 1999-2014.
