KEY TO GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA | THE MAIN CAUSES



In Nigeria, though accurate data on unemployment is hard to come by, there is no mistaking the fact that the country is today faced with very high unemployment rate. The every day sight of the growing army of unemployed youths roaming the streets with despair written on their faces attests to the gravity of the job market situation in Nigeria.
Graduate unemployment, not to talk of secondary school leavers has reached a frightening level. Year in year out our tertiary institutions turn out tens of thousands of degree and diploma holders but only a tiny fraction find jobs, any job for that matter. Some of the principal keys responsible for the growing unemployment in  Nigeria include

THE SLOW RATE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH.
The economy is not growing fast enough to absorb the high number of people, especially graduates coming into the job market. This is the classical case of supply out-stripping demand. Understandably, while the arts and humanities still play important role in development, the principal road to robust and long lasting development is inarguably via science and technology. In other words, in the development process, science ought to receive a pre-eminent place above everything else because it undoubtedly under pins every aspect of human development. The challenges of job creation, graduate unemployment, low growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product and high population growth rate have therefore been advanced as critical factors militating against the rapid industrialization of Nigeria.

INADEQUATE SKILLS
Our university and other tertiary institutions are not training people with appropriate skills required for a century competitive global economy dominated by Information Technology. Observation however suggests that employment opportunities for graduates are not mainly a function of the employment system and its requirement but also of the quantitative structural skill linkages. It has been noted as well that in many countries, the views and the reputation of certain institutions and departments influence the employability of their students. Hence some institutions of higher learning try to maintain higher competitive edge for their graduates by including different professional experiences during the course of study.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS OF THE FRESH GRADUATES
Graduate unemployment is growing daily and at an accelerated rate in Nigeria, yet the strength of student enrolment and graduate output of the institutions of higher learning are growing rapidly. Many graduates of the higher educational institutions resent public service employment especially the teaching profession, even though vacancies exist in such jobs at various levels. The common ambition of most fresh students’ graduates is to be employed in the oil companies or the banks. These are popular because of their much higher pay. Many graduates are even willing to accept retraining in order to be employed in the oil company or the banks and some of them do train fresh graduates to acquire relevant skills before job placement. Some university students came into university as employees of establishments on in-service training. This category of students have the opportunity of going straight to a job immediately they graduate. Majority of the graduates who had no prior experience and work may have some delay in entering the workforce. The only prospect of jobs for fresh graduates is their participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The graduates try to impress the perspective employer during the one-year period of NYSC so as to have some edge over others during recruitment exercise.

RECRUITMENT REQUIREMENTS
Employers’ expectations are varied and cannot easily be determined because of the numerous factors that may influence the need for recruitment or the recruitment requirement. Sometimes, employers’ views about the reputation of certain institutions and departments may tend to influence recruitment, hence, some institutions of higher education consequently try to ensure higher competitive edge for their graduates by establishing some direct professional experiences during the students’ course of study (learning visits, internships).

THE QUEST FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Although Nigeria has many problems to contend with, but that of the education sector is a major one. The quest for higher education in Nigeria, even though has increased almost exponentially in the last quarter of the last century, however, this has brought about large scale of graduate unemployment. Because of the obvious structural and dynamic relationship between higher education and a country’s level of development, we can safely conclude that a society’s system of education has a direct and critical bearing on the types of job that can potentially be available for graduate employment. However, the objective realities of the Nigerian university system do suggest that the country may not be able to provide employment for all her graduates, as the continuous decline in the performance of our universities is quite obvious. It runs through absence of critical teaching/research personnel, lack of facilities, lack of textbook, poorly equipped libraries and laboratories. In this very depressing situation, therefore, the process of teaching, research publication and knowledge development may have no relevance to the challenges of the present global market.  

INADEQUATE EDUCATIONAL CURRICULA AND POOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
The educational system as inherited from the colonial era was grammar-oriented until recently, the school curricula emphasized the arts subjects. Again, the educational system is theoretically oriented, for this reason, the system of education does not equip school leavers with those practical skills required for earning a living. Many of them see education as a means of freeing themselves form working on the land. Many remain unemployed since they are not suited to the available job opportunities. Many people do not attend school for further study beyond the first degree level. This could be as a result of widespread poverty and the low value placed on education by some people. There are therefore, a high percentage of young people who are unemployed because there are not enough available job opportunities and they don’t possess the required skills.

IMMOBILITY OF LABOUR        
Occupational and geographical immobility of labour compounds the problem of unemployment. Immobility of labour arises from factors such as tribalism and state area due to a low wage structure that a lack of economic, social infrastructure and trade union regulations. The result is that, there is a scarcity of labour in some areas and serious unemployment in other areas. Youth restiveness in the Nigeria Delta is an example of the bad implication of graduate unemployment in Nigeria. Self-employment should be encouraged nation wide as this in turn crates job for other people.
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