THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA
BY
MUMBOH E. ROBERTSON
A PROJECT WORK SUMBITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF BANKING AND FINANCE, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FRO THE AWARD OF DIPLOMA IN BANKING AND FINANCE
JANUARY, 2004
ABSTRACT
This study is aimed at finding the nature and causes of unemployment in Nigeria. This has become necessary because of the its increasing rate, and this problem has caused social and economic evil in the society. An attempt has been made by different individuals, economist and scholars to study this problem. Amongst these are Mr. Lawal in his book titled ³Economics of West Africa´ and Mr. Archibald Callaway, that is titled ³The Employment Problem Of Secondary School Leavers in Ibadan´ He found that a large number of school leavers are unemployed and those employed are in the public sectors. Only a few are employed in the private sector. Unemployment in Nigeria has become rampant that many of them indulge in social ills like armed robbery, pick pocketing, prostitution and those sometimes called ³Area Boys´ This study found that the causes of unemployment in Nigeria range from the weakness in the educational curriculum, that is bias towards academic courses and inability of the public sector to provide jobs for school leavers. In recent times, students enrollment in primary, secondary and Tertiary institutions increased tremendously, and job to opportunities are not increasing simultaneously. It is therefore, feared that in some years to come, this problem of employment will become unbearable, expect plans are made to avert it now. Based on our findings, we recommend that the curriculum in the Secondary Schools should include practical subjects and problems solving courses be enable the students to acquire technical skills, that government should set up and employment agency for job placement for the young school leavers. Finally, the Nigerian government and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity should take note of these problems and make recommendations and to take i mmediate steps in arriving at possible results.
1.0
INTRODUCTION. In this chapter, we will reviewing various works on unemployment. 1.1 THEORIES OF UNEMPLOYMENT.
Many economist have come out with various opinions about unemployment; they put forward theories about how best deal with it. This chapter deals with the view of these writers. Economist world wide agree that unemployment is an economic problem that must be solved; but many of them have varied opinions of how to solve it, their solutions vary between two extremes. On one end, is considered that of the classical idea which originated from Say. The other extreme is that which originated by Keynes and is know as the Keynesian model which encompasses many dissenters. 2.2 THE CLASSICAL DOCTRINE OF UNEMPLOYMENT. The classical macroeconomics was the dominant system of economic thought during the one hundred and fifty years preceding the 1930s. The foundation for Classical Macroeconomics lies in the quantity theory of money, Say¶s law and the notion of self-regulation markets. SAY¶S LAW9 and the system of self-regulating markets lead to classical economist to conclude that prolonged periods of unemployment were impossible in a competitive market economy. This theory which emphasizes that the price at which any good is sold represents the wages of labour, the interest of the capitalist, the rent of the owners of the land and fixed resources and the profit of entrepreneur. Say¶s idea was based on the relationship among production, income and spending. He argued that the creation of products for the market generated amount of income equal to the value of their of the product produced. If business produced products worth N10, 000.00 they also create income equal N 10, 000.00. Since the value of their money is the same as the worth of the products, this production process had created the income necessary to buy the goods produced hence no unemployment. In Say¶s own reasoning, he said that people offered their labour or the product of their labour to earn income in which it is used in consumption spending. Production he said, generated income which is spent on production. This idea brought about the phrase´ production creates its own demand´ which today s known as Say¶s Law. 10 Using this simple but logical analysis, the causes of high national level of unemployment existed; it was because spending for business production production was insufficient to ca use business to operate at a full employment level of production. Thus insufficient spending was identified as the cause of unemployment. To remedy high level of unemployment, aggregate demand had to be increased. In this analysis, disruption may arise in between production and prices resulting in over production I one industry and under production in another industry. Generally there will be no unemployment since they balance out each other. Also, with the introduction of technology, which results in the automation of job, this will result I the displacement of wor kers. However, the automation will result in wide volume of goods being produced and will result in falling prices as many of the goods will be demanded. This will result in employment of workers to produce more hence, unemployment cannot occur. Although this idea was the popular, there was economists who were opposed to it. RICARDO11 opposed the theory of automatic reabsorption of displaced workers. In his principles of Political economy, he emphasized the opinion entertained by the labouring class that the employment of machinery is frequently detrimental to their interest and that workers lay-off as a r esult of automation of jobs could be the situation. MARX 12 also attack the Say¶s he said that technological advances continually served to transform some parts of the working
population into unemployment because of the rapidly rising employment of machinery in the production processes. 1.2
MODERN ORTHODOX THEORIES. This can be seen in the work of neo-classical economist like ALFRED MARSHAL 13 and other. They used the equilibrium theory of economic system as a focal point in their analysis. They said that any disturbance in the economy is automatically adjusted through the price mechanism. They maintained that unemployment in one sector of the economy will be wipe out by over employment in the other sector of the economy that at the global look at the economy there will be no unemployment situation in the economy. The wages theory that says that wages tend to keep to the level that will provide the work with only a bare subsistence and that if wages for sometime rise above this subsistence level; this rise inevitably leads to an increase in the population. This increase in the population will increase competition amongst workers for employment, will cause the wages paid to the worker to fall again. This ensures that there is an equilibrating balance at all time as the increase in one sector is checked by decrease in another sector. However, the modern theories to some extent do not agree with this viewpoint. The rigidities of the economic system tend t end to hinder these theories from equilibrating sometimes. The trade union who prevent reduction of wages, monopolist who tries to wipe out competitions and immobility of labour and capital in the economy and market imperfection due to lack of knowledge, are facts of economic life! Finally, the argument for the tra de union that they help to consolidate the negotiating ability of the worker help the economic system and also that labour and capital today are not completely immobile, they are to some extent mobile in the long run; this also help unemployment. 1.3
HOBSON AND UNDERCONSUMPTION THEORY Many modern economists have taken the view that unemployment can and did exist in an economy; amongst these economists is HOBSON who propounded the doctrine of under consumption as the cause of unemployment. The argument that there is tendency for lost of purchasing power required to buy what has been produced is a feature of under consumption theory. Hobson says that if income is equally distributed amongst the populace there is the tendency for the rich in that population to save a large proportion of their own income because they are already supplied with the bare necessities of life. This income saved will be invested in plant and machinery and raw material to produce consumer goods. This will in turn increase the output of consumer goods without corresponding increase I the demand for them. This result in an over production of the consumer goods, stock holding will be very high. In the next round of production, the entrepreneur will be force to reduce production .Reduction in production mean less people are taken in for production and this lead to unemployment. If this is not checked in the next round of production still less people will be employed as a result of less saving that resulted from the former round of production. This leads to chronic unemployment. 2.5 KEYNES AND T HE UNDER-INVESTMENT THEORIES. KEYNES stressed under investment as the main cause of unemployment in an economy. According KEYNES 14 the national income has two components, that part saved and that part consumed (Y=C+S) he emphasis that the ent ire amount saved must find it way investment; if this is not so, it will result to chronic unemployment. However the liquidity preference of individual who desire to hold fund in the form of cash as impediment. The amount of employment in an economy will depend on the volume of the national income. In order to maintain a high level of employment as previously, the amount
of investment should be kept as high in the present period. This has to be followed in some instance with the interest rate low enough to encourage saving and investment. Keynes said that even though it is possible saving and investment to be equal a level high enough to achieve full employment equilibrium is more likely to be reached at a lower point and demand for labour will not be enough at that point to ensure employment to those who desire job. Some later followers of Keynes laid emphasis on interest rate as a method of inducing investment. They said that the decision of businessmen is more influenced by profit expectation and also by any cost reduction, which might be obtained from theological invention. Finally we should bear in mind that investment in the Keynesian sense refers to business activities that bring in new machines new factories, capital equipment into the economy and not the transfer of ownership which results from the purchase of real property already in existence for this does not increase employment In all these theories of the writer believe that unemployment cannot exist and that if it did exist, it was only for the time being. There are others who believe that unemployment is a must and it must and it must come, either in the short run or on the long run.
2.6 GENERAL UNEMPLOYMENT. LAWAL15 says that if the government fails to generate adequate level of aggregate monetary demand there will be general unemployment in the economy. Government can influence the level of aggregate monetary demand by the manipulation of tax rates and public sector expenditures, so as to maintain full or nearly full employment. We should bear in mind that any action that government takes to stimulate demand in one section will have repercussion elsewhere; this is evidence in the case of government pursuit of full employment leads to inflation and adverse balance of payments. 2.7 STRUCTURAL UNEMPLOYMENT. HANSON16 suggests that structural unemployment is due to changes in demand. He is of the opinion that this unemployment is cause by changes in the country¶s industrial structure through the switching of production from one kind of work to another. Such a change produces unemployment only because of the immobility of factor of production. It is possible for structural unemployment to occur when an industry suffers a decline in the demand for it product without any compensating new demand arising. In this case, if labour were perfectly mobile it would quickly be reabsorbed by other expanding industries. But if labours are immobile the workers will have to be unemployed. 2.8 SEASONAL UNEMPLOYMENT This is another feature of unemployment unemployment in Nigeria. According to LAWAL, this is a situation in which a particular worker¶s chances of being employed are subjected to the dictates of the seasons. In Nigerian, there there is a high incidence incidence of seasonal unemployment unemployment and it is is usually associated with labour fluctuation or changes in the agricultural and construction industries. The average peasant farmer in Nigeria is mainly seasonally unemployed as there are certain periods of the year in which he does virtually nothing on his farm. There are many workers who are employed to work in cocoa plantations, rice, field and maize farms during planting and harvesting periods. These often have little or nothing to do during the slack period and if they cannot find other job these periods, they remain unemployed, unemployed, albeit seasonally.
2.9 FRICTIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT. This is another characteristics of the unemployment problem in Nigeria. This feature of unemployment involves a short term unemployment which follows workers strikes, natural disasters, layoff or the conscious action of workers who quit their job that are low paying in search of high paying ones. According BODE ONIMODE 17,, or than any other social category in the country the Nigeria work force has borne the worst consequences of the current economic crisis, the rising prices, falling wages, massive retrenchment without adequate compensation , and drastic reduction of public expenditure on social services has imposed the burden of structural adjustment programme on the work force. 2.10
CYCLICAL UNEMPLOYMENT.
According to BEVERRIDGE WILLIAMS ( 1944) 18 given the total demand for goods and services, and given existing wages rate and labour productivity it is not sufficient to generate jobs for all those who want t, and are eligible to work. In this case it means that the t he number of jobs and vacancies available in the economy as a whole is significantly less than the number of people seeking employment opportunity. This however is part of the circle. On the other part there may be more vaca ncies than available workers. 2.11 .0 CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT UNEMPLOYME NT IN NIGERIA. Generally, there are many factors that are responsible for the unemployment problem in Nigeria. The fact remains that the numbers of openings for jobs are very few compare to the number of people seeking for employment. We shall examine the factors that impinge on unemployment in Nigeria. 2.11.1 EDUCATION. One important feature of unemployed people is that most of them are educated, having gone through some formal or informal education system. It has been noted that since 1960, there has been very rapid expansion of primary, secondary and tertiary educational enrollment in Nigeria. According to the 1966/67 labour force sample survey 19 the highest incidence of unemployment was among the primary education, and secondary education as the accounted for about 60 percent of the unemployed persons in the country. Also according to the labour force sample survey conducted in 1990 by the Federal Office of Statistics under the programme of National an integrated Survey on Households (NISH), the bulk of the unemployed were secondary school leavers who accounted for 60. 1 percent of the total unemployed unemployed in the urban and rural center, respectively. Another point which can be considered under the educational factor is the issue of poor attitude of students to their academic work.. There is also the nature of school curriculum which appear irrelevant to our employment needs. TEKENA N TAMUNA and J. A. ATANDA (ed) 20 in their contribution, hint that the colonial grammar school orientation has remained the dominant feature of most school curricula, and emphasis has been on academic preparation for university education. The secondary School system is not view as a possible terminal educational point in one¶s career. The existing technical and Vocational Schools are all ill equipped and admit pupil who are considered as dropout from school .when this students graduate from these schools they have no technical or vocational skill to support themselves hence they t hey remain unemployed.
The introduction of the six years programme of secondary school education; comprising 3year junior and 3year senior secondary school is aimed at reducing the curriculum bias through preparation of pupils for both future education and the world of work. This will go a long way at reducing unemployment 2.10.2 RISING POPULA TION Many writers have attributed unemployment in Nigeria to t he rising population .According to Ojo21, the population of each city in Nigeria from 1952 to 1963 increased so much that it resulted in an annual rate of growth which ranged from 3 percent to 10.6percent. The population of Nigeria has been increasing since the past years, the 1952 figure was 30.4 million and that of 1963 was put at 55.6 million and the provisional figure for 1991 population figure is put at 88.5 million. As a result of these increases in population figure there is also increase in labour force rate and this leads to unemployment, as job opportunities opportunities are not increasing as the population is increasing. TABLE1 Nigeria: population figure 1952and 1963
State Northern State Eastern State Western State Mid-Western state Lagos State
1952 Census (m) 16.8
7.2 4.4 1.5 0.5 30.4
1963
Census in
(m) 29.8 12.4 9.5 2.5
Growth Rate % 5.3 5.1 7.3 4.7
1.4
9.8
55.6
5.6
Source: Federal Office of Stat istics. Table 1showed the actual population figure for 1952 and 1963 it is hardly believed that the population would have quadrupled in times although the 1991 population figure of 88.5 million is till a provision figure. 2.10.3 RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION The rural ±urban migration is another main faction that causes unemployment in Nigeria. According to MAKINWA 22 many school leavers are unable to continue their education or find employment in their home village or towns and consequently have to migrate to large towns where they swell the rank of the unemployed. This problem of unemployment among school leavers and the risk it poses for social and political stability in large towns have received attention from government and scholars (BLANG 1973) 22 says that the t he introduction of free or almost free primary school education first in western and eastern region in 1955 and later in north greatly greatl y accelerated accel erated the rural rura lurban exodus of school leavers .Education raises the level of unsatisfied needs in residents of village and small towns where opportunities for desired types of jobs are limited .The ensuring dissatisfaction with rural life and the aspiration and desire of the school leaver and their families provide the motive force force for city-ward migration. When they get to these cities, they disappointed because with the primary education and in some cases secondary education the only work they can get is Clerk, Cleaner, Watchman, Guard and Messengers in the offices. In some cases none of these jobs are available for them, hence they remain unemployed. TABLE II
POPULATION URBAN, RURAL AND ACTUAL AND PROJECTED TO 1985. YEAR
URBAN
RURAL
TOTAL
1950
4742 6055 7668 9830 12535 16098 20772 26878
29589 32186 35270 38846 42539 46924 52012 57822
34331
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985
38241
42947 48876 48876 55074 63022 72784 72784 84700
% URBAN 13.81 15.83 17.85 20.20 22.76 25.54 28.54 31.73
URBAN
RURAL
TOTAL
5.01 4.84 5.09 4. 98 5.13 5.23 5.29
-
2. 18 2. 35 2.54 2.50 2.73 2. 92 3.04
1.70 1.85 1.94 1.83 1.98
2.08 2.14
URBAN RURAL. 3.31 2.98 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15
Source: Urban and Rural Population 1950-1985 September, 1970 United Nation, Adapted from Nigeria: Option for Long term Development, Baltimore, John Hopkins, University Press 1974. With the projected urban population as shown in Table II the urban population has been on the increase since 1950. In the above case, the increase in the urban population has not been matched with increase in employment. The failure to generate enough jobs at a rate commensurate with the increase in the urban population growth has been the major source of Nigeria¶s unemployment problem. 2.10.4 RURAL ± URBAN WAGE RATE DIFFERENTIAL TODARO24 in his µlabour migration and urban unemployment in less developed countries¶ postulates that people¶s decision to move from rural to urban centers with the view of achieving an economic improvement of life is a function of two major variables, these are the urban unemployment rate which largely determines the probability with which migrants could secure urban employment and rural income differential. Nigeria¶s situation is similar to Todaro¶s explanation. We know that the urban-rural differentials wage rate has been in favour of urban workers for a long time. The persistence of the exodus of people from the country side to the urban centrs despite high unemployment situation is clearly noticeable in Nigeria. In the first place there is a marked difference between urban and rural earning. The wages earner who earns an amount which is about four times more than what he used to earn in the rural area has been more compensated for the time he has to wait in the town for employment. Also there is deceptive display of wealth by many city dwellers whenever they visit homes in the rural areas. There is also lack of adequate information about urban employment condition. Many attempts have been made to show the existence of rural urban income differentials in Nigeria.ALUKO25 shows that that while average per capita income in the agricultural forest and fishing sector rose from N204.00 in 1960 to N230.00 in 1967, the national average rose from N350.00 to N520.00 during the same period. The increase in other sector such as the manufacturing sector (5 1%) and commerce ( 92%) both being urban-based were above the national average. As we have seen above even when appropriate price deflator have been used, it will be seen that the wage differentials between the urban and rural areas has widen considerably, this view was expressed by DIEJOMAOH &ORIMOLADE26 2.12 PREVIOUS ATEMPT AT SOLVING SOLVING UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM IN NIGERIA.
There are no up to date statistical data on the extent of unemployment in Nigeria. However, the problem of unemployment was not so serious before 1980.ONOKERHORAYE, in his postulation said that the current unemployment problem started about 1981 as a result of the international oil glut and consequently, the economics recession which Nigeria has only declined, but there has been a lot of labour retrenchment and forced retirement. The current unemployment problem affects all categories of workers, including educated and trained Nigerians. In an attempt to solve the unemployment unemployment problem, the government government after giving a serious thought to the extent and dynamics of unemployment problem in the country came up in 1986 with the idea of providing an agency which could tackle the unemployment problem. Thus, the launching on January 30, 1987 of the National Directorate of Employment Employment (NDE). 2.12.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE NDE PROGRAMME The objective is to effectively combat unemployment through the design and implementation of radical strategies to prepare the country¶s youth for gainful employment. This goal is to be achieved through the provision of training opportunities, guidance and finances to the unemployed citizens and the creation of jobs for themselves and for others. 2.12.2
MAJOR PROGRAMMES OF N.D.E
a) Youth employment and vocational skill development b) Small scale industry and graduate employment. c) Special works programme. d) Agricultural programme. A) YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND VOCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME. This programme is as a result of the fact that majority of the country¶s unemployed population are young people who lack productive and marketable skills. The objective is to give vocational training to primary /Secondary schools leavers and other unemployed youths who have no marketable skills by placing them as apprentices in private and or public establishment for period long enough to enable them acquire these necessary skills and experience. The training experience should enable them to be absorbed into the labour force. The three main acquisition schemes are as follows: i) National Open Apprenticeship Scheme. ii) Waste to wealth Scheme iii) School on wheels Scheme. i) NATIONAL OPEN APPRENTICESHIP APPRENTICESHIP SCHEME. Prospective participants after registering with the federal ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity are attached by NDE as apprentices, to either private or public institution master craftsmen and others to learn needed skill for a period of one to tree years, the trainer is paid a fee for impacting skills to the apprentices themselves are paid monthly allowance to augment their transportation expenses to a nd fro the training institutions. institutions. The graduates of this scheme are expected to benefit from NDE small scale industries loans to enable them established their own businesses or go into gainful employment. ii) WASTE TO WEALTH SCHEME. This scheme is designed to provided unemployed youths with skills to convert discarded objects like snail shells, sea shells, cans materials, coconut shells, etc into decorative materials , household furniture, toys, wall-mats, etc. the scheme is aimed at encouraging youth, and also directed at steaming wastage. The training course last for two weeks after which participants are given loan packa ges made up of cash and kinds
. iii) SCHOOL WHEELS SCHEME. The rural youth could not benefit from the scheme of NDE because the training establishments capable of offering apprenticeship training are few. This has encouraged ruralruralurban drift. To arrest the situation, the school on wheels scheme was established. It consists of taking mobile vocational facilities to the rural are to retain a couple of artisans. iv) SCHEM FOR THE DISABLE This scheme is in conformity with national policy of encouraging the disable to participate fully in the national development. It is in recognition of these facts that in spite of their physical deformity, the disable are mentally alert and need incentives to contribute their quotas towards national development. development. B) SMALL SCALE INDUSTRY AND GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMME. The purpose is to inculcate inculcat e into Nigerian graduates t he spirit spirit of enterprise, ent erprise, creativity and selfselfreliance as opposed to the prevailing notion of dependence on the government and others to provide white collar jobs. To this end, the NDE encourages through the provision of loans and other necessary a ids, potential entrepreneur to s et up small-scale small-scale industries in other to to create jobs for themselves and others. To benefit from any of the small scale industrial loans, participants must undergo a short period of training called Entrepreneur Development Programme (EDP). This involves acquainting potential entrepreneur with business techniques. The small scale industries programme has three distinct schemes. a) Graduate Job creating Loan Schemes b) Matured People Scheme c) School Leavers Loan Scheme i) GRADUATE JOB CREATION LOAN SCHEME This scheme is aimed at assisting fresh graduates to establishing their own businesses. After attending an EDP course and presenting a good feasibility study, the participants could benefit from a loan of N25, 000.00 and N35, 000.00, using their certificates or degrees as collateral security. The loan is repayable for a period of five years with one-year moratorium. ii) MATURED PEOPLE SCHEME. This involves those who are either retired or preparing for an economic productive life. The loan amount available to selected participant who successfully go through the matured people scheme(MPS) and present a bank project could be given up to N 150, 000.00 depending on the quality of project. The loan which attracts a 9 percent interests is payable within five years. iii) SCHOOL LEAVERS LOAN SCHEME. The school leavers¶ loan scheme is designed to give the youths who are graduates from NDE skill acquisition centers, it is a loan between N2000.00 to N 10, 000.00 to enable them establishes their own businesses. The loan attracts an interest rate of 11 percent and is repayable within five years period.
C) SPECIAL PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME The aim of this programme is obtained in four folds and these are:
a) To create an executive labour intensive projects using the unemployed youth in the community of the local government areas. b) To engage in the construction and maintenance of public roads and other public facilities with the interest and value of the community. c) To create temporary mass employment while enabling participants to acquire practical skills. d) To develop and advance a maintenance culture in the country. To wards the realization of these objectives, work force of about 200 unemployed graduates and 800 school leavers had been constituted in each of the states. Graduates participants are paid a monthly stipend of N200.00 while their non-graduates counterparts receive N150.00. D) AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMME The major objective of this programme is to stimulate the interest of the country¶s youth in the agricultural sector order to create employment and restore lost glory of agriculture. To achieve these objectives, two major schemes have been designed, these are: i) Graduate agricultural loan scheme ii) School leavers agricultural Loans scheme a) GRADUATE SGRICULTURAL SGRICULTURAL LOAN SCHEME. SCHEME. Participants in this scheme are holders of degrees, diplomas and Certificates in agriculture. Selected participants undergo undergo necessary orientation orientation and training. A loan package of between between N11, 500.00 to N 13, 500.00 is granted to each of the members. Disbursement is in the form of cash and kind. A prepared farm block of five acres located I local government area is allocated to each participant serving as collateral for the loan given which is repayable in period of five years, with a year moratorium. B) SCHOOL LEAVERS AGRICULTURAL LOAN PROGRAMME. Under this scheme, school leavers are placed in farms settlements of other suitable locations in each state of the federation, where they undergo training for a year period. Loan amounting to N5, s000.00 is granted to each participant, to set up his or her own farm on an acre of land, cleared and prepared by the NDE. The loan is repayable in five years period at one percent interest rate. SUMMARY: We shall summarize by stating our finding as follows: - our literature review reveals that the theories of unemployment, types of unemployment and previous attempts at solving the unemployment problem in Nigeria. We discussed the classical doctrine which sees unemployment as impossible and it is believe that if it occurs it would be corrected immediately, for it is assumed that there is always enough purchasing power to buy back the entire output. There is some possibility and reality in this doctrine but it does not hold as far as Nigeria is concerned because we have ha ve not developed the technology that will give prices t o our business commodities. We also discussed the orthodox theories of unemployment, it argue that technological advances would not necessarily result in reduced demand so that all displaced workers are reemployed. They believed that any disturbances in the economic system are adjusted automatically by the price mechanism. Under this theory, the wages rate is equal to the marginal product of labour. If the wages rate were to rise above this level, there would be an
increase in the supply of labour and decreases in demand; o that wage rate again would fall to the equilibrium level. Whatever unemployment that occur, it is assumed that it is voluntary, that is either the employed do not want to work at the ongoing wage rate or there is some other problems. Anyway, what we have in Nigeria is open unemployment, that is, involuntary unemployment. There are jobs seeker wanting to work at t he ruling rate but there are no jobs for them. From our literatures, we looked at some of factors as being responsible for the unemployment in the country. These are ranging from educational factors, rising population, rural ±urban migration and rural ±urban wages differentials. Those factors are really present today in our economy. We have rural- urban drift as a result of the disproportionate distribution of social amenities which thus make urban settlement more attractive than the rural. The problem of under utilization of labour has become so acute in recent year that a number of efforts have been put into finding solution to it. This is been done through the directorate of Employment. Some other problem pointed out as being responsible for unemployment in Nigeria are nepotism, bribery and corruption. This seems to be irrelevant but they are the major problems causing unemployment in Nigeria. Our findings have supported our assumption, that the educational curriculum at the secondary schools level is biased towards academics courses. This is why unemployment rate is high among the secondary school leavers, because the type of work they can find and fit into is limited in supply. The unemployment factor not only creates immediate problems but it also creates problems like armed robbery, prostitution among the female folks a nd juvenile delinquencies. delinquencies. 3.2
POLICY IMPLICATIOON Unemployment Unemployment a mong the young people people who ar e in primary pri mary and secondary school levels and even the tertiary institutions are very high. Their state of unemployment constitutes a double loss to the society in that a tremendous amount of resources both financial and otherwise has been invested in their formal education and their consumption demand which they make on the economy. It therefore becomes necessary to embark on measures for resolving r esolving it. 3.3 EDUCATION: With the increased investment on education both at the state and federal levels, the unemployment rate could double every five year if care is not taken. With the introduction of free education programme, there is automatic admission of primary school leavers into secondary schools and secondary school into university or other higher institutions In the past, not every primary school leaver have the opportunity of having secondary school education and so on. Some of them fail and go back home, even among the successful school leavers have financial constraints to further their education. But now, that is free a large number of people re now being turn out these institution every year and they came out to be unemployed because those who are on the limited jobs have not quit them. 3.4 RECOMMENDATION: the employment in Nigeria are in fact due to the failure of the economy to expand fast enough to absorb rapidly growing number number of young school leavers leavers that are been turn out due to the government programme of free education. The following recommendations are made for t he correction of these problems: 1. The federal and state governments should cooperate towards eliminating any barrier real or emergency that impedes the free movement of persons with special skills and educational qualifications from one state to another. 2. Greater efforts should be made to disseminate information relating to vacancies and career prospects in technical and professional occupations.
3.
The curriculum in our school education should include practical subjects and problems solving experience which would enable students to learn basic technical skills and to acquire new insight and interests. 4. In each secondary school, a teacher should be given special responsibility for organizing career talks within the school so that each prospective final year student know what career are available and are more important. This career guidance should include lectures, film shows and group discussion. 5. There is need for research into the general problems of rural development or depressed agricultural conditions of a combination of community development improvement of village amenities intensified agricultural extension work etc. with this, migration to the urban centers will be minimized. CONCLUSION: In the study, we have tried to examine the nature and causes of unemployment in Nigeria, it implication and effects on the young school leavers. The existence of unemployment in the country is a serious problem and the problem has been getting worse over the years especially with the introduction of free education at all level of the educational system by the federal government. government. The social and economic implication of this unemployment is indeed serious problem and call for urgent action and policy formulation, which will reduce it if it cannot be eliminated.
