Nigerias job crisis may have reached an all time high what with the over 21 million active youth and adult population unable to secure gainful employment in the last 12 months. Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report examines the issuesFew months ago, this reporter visited the popular Tejuosho market in uptown district of Lagos, to buy a pair of shoes. As soon as he got to the complex, an army of youths literally danced attendance upon the reporter as they all tried to outsmart each other in their quest to be his self-appointed guide to show him around the expansive market which was wearing a new look in years after its demolition and subsequent reconstruction through a private, public partnership initiative with the state government and a few corporate bodies.After much hesitation, the reporter finally settled for a gangly fellow whose height would have better served him either as a model, sportsman and what have you. The young man who would later simply identify himself as Okey, short for Okechukwu, said he was a graduate of Mechanic Engineering from one of the polytechnics in the Eastern part of the country. The reporter in tow went window-shopping around to no end, until the self-appointed guide finally led him to a shop manned by a young lady and Business Administration graduate from the University of Lagos (names withheld), where after much persuasion from the sugar-coated shop attendant, a bargain was struck. With sales over, the reporter soon engaged in small talk with the duo of Okey and the lady, and they both revealed that frustration led them to their current situation. While the 2012 UNILAG graduate said she earns N15, 000 as monthly salary, the young man had no steady income but only relied on tips from generous customers who may decide to reward him for walking them round the market in search of what to buy.After combing the streets of Lagos for jobs without success, I engage in this side hustle just to have somewhere to go at the end of the day because even if I stay at home, there is no job, money or joy for me, Okey deadpanned, and subsequently cajoled the reporter to give him a tip since the latter was able to make a purchase.The foregoing anecdote aptly captures the problem of rising unemployment and underemployment amongst the nations growing active youths and adult population.Who is employed'According the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition, a person is regarded as employed if he/she is engaged in the production of goods and services, thereby contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in a legitimate manner, which is a component of the national accounts and receives any form or amount of compensation for that activity.Accordingly, it does not consider the employed persons satisfaction with the work, meets with his or her qualification or whether his compensation is suitable/satisfactory. There is no universal standard definition of unemployment as various countries adopt definitions to suit their local priorities. However, all countries use ILOs definition, or a variant of it to compute its unemployment estimates. The ILO definition covers persons aged 1564 who during the reference period (which is usually the week preceding the time the survey is administered) were available for work, actively seeking work, but unable to find work.The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, like most countries in the world, uses a variant of the ILO definition. The unemployment rate is the proportion of those in the labour force (not in the entire economic active population, nor the entire Nigerian population), who were actively looking for work but could not find work for at least 20 hours during the reference period.Accordingly, you are unemployed if you did absolutely nothing at all, or did something but for less than 20 hours during the reference week. Hence, the unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the labour force population by labour force population.Who is unemployed'Underemployment, however, occurs if you work less than full-time hours, which are 40 hours, but work at least 20 hours on average a week and /or if you work full time but are engaged in an activity that underutilises your skills, time and educational qualifications. Consequently, rural farmers only farming seasonally will be considered underemployed if they only work on their farms during the planting and harvests periods and do nothing in between. If farmers are however working in dry and wet seasons, as is increasingly becoming the case, they will then be considered to be in full-time employment. It is important to note that the international definition of unemployment, underemployment or employment is not a function of the quantity/suitability of wages earned nor it is a function of job satisfaction. Rather employment, underemployment, and unemployment are treated as a function of a persons involvement or otherwise in economic activity even if that activity is performed solely to make ends meet and not for satisfaction or enjoyment. The suitability of wages or job fulfilment is covered under other indices such as the living standard, poverty rate or happiness index, but not in determining whether one is employed, unemployed or underemployed, which is a function of economic engagement.Damning statisticsNigerias population, according to the UN, stands at approx. 200 million and currently with a working population of 115.5million as at 2018. The country with a median age of 18, implies that the youths represents 42.54% of the total population.From available information, the unemployment rate in the last five years has continuously grown by 4% and was 23.1% as at the previous report generated in Q3 of 2018.The foregoing information which is backed by the figures from National Bureau for Statistics (NBS) shows that the number of unemployed Nigerians increased from 17.6 million in fourth quarter of 2017 to 20.9 million in the third quarter of 2018.Promises upon promises!It would be recalled that in the heat of political hustings in 2015 as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) had pledged to create three million jobs yearly for the nations unemployed youths if voted to power.The former head of state equally promised to revive hundreds of moribund industries and textile companies, most of which died naturally due to epileptic power supply and poor economy.Steady supply of power is just necessary. If voted into office, we will try within our capacity to revive textile industry, reinvigorate the solid minerals sector and make sure that state governments work with the federal government to make Northern Nigeria a food basket of Africa, where agriculture will be encouraged among our farmers, Buhari assured at the time.Buhari, who gave the assurances while addressing a town hall meeting in Kano as part of its presidential campaign strategy, expressed worries at the growing poverty level and employment, blaming the present administration for poor handling of the nations economy. But four years down the line, that promise has remained largely unfulfilled, a development expert attributed to recession, which affected the economy almost a year into the Buhari administration during his first term.Unemployment status of statesJudging by the outcome of the 2018 Labour Force survey released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the third quarter, the performance of the different states of the federation leaves nothing to cheer about as far as the unemployment status is concerned.According to the survey, Nigeria had a labour force of 90.47 million nationwide, among which Lagos, Rivers, Oyo, Kano and Akwa-Ibom accounted for 26.23% of the total labour force. Of these, Akwa Ibom state reported the highest unemployment rate (37.7%), followed by Rivers State with (36.4%), Bayelsa state (32.6%), Abia (31.6%) and Borno state (31.4%).The top five states with the highest unemployed population are Rivers (1,673,991), Akwa Ibom (1,357,754), Kano (1,257,130), Lagos (1,088,352) and Kaduna with (940,480).Among these five states with the highest unemployed population, Lagos state reported the lowest rate of 14.6% during the reference quarter while Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna, and Yobe, recorded the highest underemployment rates during the reviewing period, of 39.5%, 38.1%, 31.0% and 30.0% respectively.The National unemployment rate for the quarter was 23.1%, while the underemployment rate was 20.1%. Between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, only nine states recorded a reduction in their unemployment rates despite an increase in the national unemployment rate. They include: Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ondo and Rivers. The same states recorded reduction in their combined unemployment and underemployment rates.The six states that recorded the highest gains in net full time employment between Q3 2017 and Q2 2018 include Lagos adding 740,146 net full time jobs, Rivers (235,438), Imo (197,147), Ondo (142,514), Enugu (122,333) and Kaduna (118,929).The regions with the highest rates were the North-East, North-Central and the North-West states in the third quarter of 2018. Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna, Yobe and Niger states recorded the highest underemployment rates during the reviewing period, with 39.5%, 38.1%, 31.0%, 30.0%, and 26.9% respectively. South West states reported relatively low underemployment rates; however, the state with the lowest underemployment rate was Taraba state (9.0%).When combining both unemployment rate and underemployment rate, Jigawa, Yobe, Rivers, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Borno, and Kano reported highest unemployed and underemployed rates in the third quarter of 2018, of 64.6%, 58.9%, 58.1%, 57.8%, 57.8%, 56.9% and 55.5% respectively, while Rivers, Kano, Akwa-Ibom, Kaduna, Lagos, Borno, and Imo reported the highest numbers of combined unemployment and underemployment population, altogether accounting for 35.2% of the total unemployed and underemployed population in Nigeria.The FCT in Q3 of 2018, recorded an increase of 8.8 percentage points in its unemployment rate, from 15.7% in Q3 2017 to 24.4 %, it also recorded a 1.2 percentage points decline in its level of underemployment, from 17.2% in Q3 2017 to 16.1% in Q3 2018. The labour force population however, increased from 1,616,778 in Q3, 2017 to 1,736,236 in Q3 2018, representing a 7.4% increase. The total net (created minus lost) number of employed persons (full time and part-time/underemployed) decreased by 52,670 persons within Q3 2017 and Q3 2018.Buharis concerns over job crisisPerhaps concerned over the growing discontent caused in part by youth unemployment, President Muhammadu Buhari had last month restated his administrations priority job creation.The priority of our administration is to create as many jobs as possible, the President told representatives of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers (NUGTW) led by the unions President, John Adaji, when they visited him at the State House, Abuja.A statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina said the Federal Government demonstrated this with the deployment of resources into agriculture, mining and job-creating sectors in the last four years.Adesina said the President lamented that the closure of textile factories, especially in the North, gave rise to crimes.He was quoted as saying: We promoted policies that will support local industries such as import restrictions. We introduced programmes that provided affordable and accessible capital to both large and cottage industries.Bemoaning the closure of textile factories which used to employ millions of workers more than the workforce of the federal government in the 70s and 80s, he also saluted the textile-friendly policies of the administration such as the interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Executive Order on the use of local garments.Pledging to support the administration to keep our youths out of the streets, the union urged that the incidence of smuggling be checked in order to maximise the job-creating benefits of the textile industry.Number of jobs createdThere has been a lot of controversy surrounding the number of jobs so far created under the Buhari regime, with many analysts saying that the claims being put up by government spin doctors cant be relied upon.In the area of agriculture for instance, the federal government said 299,615 jobs were created and 209,464 metric tonnes of food provided with the first phase of its $175m Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme (ATASP-1).The government also said over 20,000 farmers and processors were trained under the ATASP-1 on good agronomic practices and food processing across the four zones where the programme was on-going.Speaking at a press conference in Abuja last July, the National Programme Coordinator, under the (Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) FMARD, Ibrahim Arabi, disclosed that ATASP-1 created in collaboration with African Development Bank (AfDB) to adopt a holistic approach to tackling the challenges confronting agriculture in Nigeria.The ATASP-1, which is supervised by the Permanent Secretary, FMARD, Mohammed Umar, is on-going in 200 rural communities, 33 Local Government Areas in seven states of the federationAnambra, Enugu, Niger, Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi and Sokoto.The Coordinator said, The programme has contributed to the food and nutrition security, job and wealth creation objectives of Nigerias agricultural policy.About 299,625 jobs have been created, compared with a target of 120,000; 209,464MT of food valued at N32.2bn has been injected into the economy as against a target of 100,000MT.Also, the increase in the incomes of farmers and entrepreneurs by 20.5 per cent at midterm review of the programme gives confidence that the target of 25 per cent increase in income for the programme beneficiaries is achievable at the end of the programme.He added that the primary goal of ATASP-1 was to contribute to poverty reduction, employment generation and wealth creation, import substitution, economic diversification and growth of Nigeria, particularly in the zones where the programme was being implemented.In order to achieve this goal, ATASP-1 uses the strategy of capacity building and empowerment of farmers, women and youths, among others across the three commodity value chains of rice, cassava and sorghum alongside rural infrastructure development, he said.Another avenue through which the government has created jobs is through the Tradermoni initiative, which is a key element of the Buhari administrations National Social Investment Programmes being implemented under the Governments Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).In a statement by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Office of the Vice President, he said about 10million Nigerians would have benefited from theSince its commencement in 2016, millions of Nigerians have benefited from GEEP, while the micro-credit schemes have empowered over 2 million micro-enterprises with collateral-free, interest-free loans to grow their businesses.Way forwardWhile delivering a keynote address at the ACT 2019 Breakfast Dialogue last July, Austin Okere, founder CWG Plc, the largest ICT Company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange & Entrepreneur in Residence at CBS, New York, suggested the need for what he described as Market-creating innovations.According to him, companies that engage in these types of innovations are the engines of economic growth in an economy. Citing a perfect example of a market-creating innovation, he said, Henry Fords Model T car falls into such category.Okere who is the brain behind the Ausso Leadership Academy, an ideas incubation platform, observed that economies can grow without becoming prosperous; he recalled that this situation happened in the 2000s when many African economies, such as Nigeria, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea, were the fastest growing in the world but failed to create prosperity for millions of their citizens.The sheer size of unemployed youths is surely a time bomb waiting to explode, as they are left to be seduced by terrorist ideals or other antisocial proclivities out of desperation, adding, A highly engaged labour force earn salaries for an expanding stable middle class, that ensures purchasing power, and they pay taxes for Infrastructure development and social welfare.One way to address this employability gap and high dependency rate is to engage our technical schools actively and also revisit the curriculum of our institutions, he stressed.According to Deon De Swardt, Principal Consultant, Mercers People First Emerging Megacities report, 95 per cent of workers in Nigeria believe that being able to further develop their professional and personal skills is highly important to them. With the threat of new competition, technology transformation and rising customer expectations as top drivers of industry disruption, its no wonder that a majority of executives believe more than 20 per cent of current jobs will cease to exist by 2022.
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