New Year is around the corner and already, many people are in a state of euphoria. But for Kenneth Okoro, a resident of Abule Owo community in the Apata area of Ibadan, Oyo State, the story is different. While thousands of people within the metropolis jostle to shop for dresses, wine, gifts and grocery in the countdown to the New Year, Okoro agonises over his predicament as a poor university graduate without a job or any means of livelihood.
Police invade Dino Melaye’s residence
In utter confusion, he sees the future as a blank page, one without a direction or hope of survival. Every day, Okoro builds hope upon hope as he awaits a job that never comes. Forlorn and downcast, he lamented aloud: “Life is hellish and utterly unbearable here in Nigeria. It is so sad that having toiled to have university education with a good degree (second class upper in Business Administration), I have looked endlessly for job without any hope. I have kept checking the newspapers, surfing the net and visiting different offices in search of job for many years after finishing with national youth service without anything to show for it.”
Having graduated in 2012 and after completed the one-year national service the following year, Okoro dreamt of getting a good job as an administrative officer in a good company. But five years down the line, that dream is still far from being achieved as he has kept looking and applying for job without success.
The problem of unemployment has compounded the woes of wretchedness in Okoro’s family as his parents counted on him to get a job in order to raise money to defray the debt that they incurred to pay his way through school. “I am very brilliant but my parents are very poor. To sponsor me through university was a big problem. They did not want me to forfeit my admission but because they are poor, the only available means of raising money for me was through cooperative loan. They did that for four years with the hope that I would get a job in time but lo and behold, I am still seeking a job without any hope. Sadly, interest on the loan keeps piling without any hope of payment, yet.”
Joel Ajayi, a graduate of Physics Electronic is also hunting for a job. Although his parents didn’t have difficulty paying for his education, he said having graduated from the university with a good degree, his hope was to get employed and settle down to an exciting work experience.
He said getting a job in Nigeria could be frustrating because survival is really difficult. He noted that unlike the situation in developed countries, there is no social security scheme to support the poor and the unemployed in Nigeria. Ajayi described unemployment in Nigeria as a terrible nightmare that is better imagined than experienced.
Although he got a job as a journalist immediately after doing the compulsory one year youth service 10 years ago, Mr Salawu was thrown into the unemployment market after losing his job barely two years ago. And since then, getting another job has been a tall dream to achieve. He said: “Getting a job elsewhere has been difficult as the media houses are ailing and not employing presently due to bad economy.”
A former employee of a leading commercial bank, Mr Abdulateef Kiriji, was a highflyer bank worker before losing his job. About five years down the line, he is still grappling with the challenges of managing his personal business. Despite having a good start-up capital, business survival remains a big puzzle for him as he finds it quite difficult to get good supporting staff to keep his vision alive.
When asked about his experience from banking to business during a telephone interview with Saturday Tribune, he said: “It is true that unemployment is high in the country but the snag is that most of the people in the labour market nowadays are unemployable. Most of those who are turned out by higher institutions are half baked and that is just one reason.
“Another problem, from my personal experience, is the get-rich-quick syndrome. Many of our youths today don’t want to sweat before making it big, forgetting that it is no pain, no gain. When you hire a staff, their desire would be to rip the company off by engaging in sharp practices rather than committing to career progression. This accounts for sackings and high rate of unemployment as well as collapse of businesses. When companies fail or close down, people would naturally get sacked and new hands would not be hired.” He stressed that more of those who were gainfully employed lose their jobs nowadays because companies are reducing staff overhead cost during recession.
For instance, eight personnel of a leading mission school in Ido Local Government Area, Ibadan, lost their jobs barely eight months ago when the management downsized. Only three of them have a cheery story to tell today after picking up the pieces of their lives to seek employment elsewhere. Others have since been languishing in a gale of joblessness.
This December, as many people await gifts from friends, families and employers, Mrs Taiwo received a parcel of shock from her employer (a private institution). She nearly fainted after she opened the package and discovered that she had been handed a sack letter without payment in lieu of notice. Taiwo, a mother of two, cried as she imagined the hard times that lied ahead for her.
All hope appeared lost for Taiwo who gazed tearfully into the horizon as her colleagues tried to pacify her. The poor cleaner who lost her husband three years ago, is confounded as to how to cater for her children all alone. She is worried about the prospect of getting a job anytime soon as her rent would be due in February. She was ruffled that her landlord might not accept her excuses.
In order to guard against frustration and depression as a result of joblessness, Ajayi said he got trained as a content writer during his undergraduate days. Now he engages in content development and training pending when he would get a suitable job. Noting that the prospect of getting a job in the country is slim as so many people jostle for very few available job opportunities, he said “not so many graduates are actually employable.”
In an interview with Saturday Tribune, the Chief Executive Officer of Kakanfo Inn, Mr Adedamola Are, said: “You don’t just conclude that people are unemployed or that unemployment rate is so high, there is also the question of how many of our graduates are employable.”
Taiwo, Okoro and Ajayi are not alone in the throes of unemployment as millions of people are contending with the problem of unemployment, underemployment, sack or being regarded as unemployable due to poor performance or having poor qualification.
The staggering prediction that world over, no fewer than 600 million people will start 2019 in extreme poverty is a pointer to the fact that unemployment is global rather than being a local phenomenon.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has it that Nigeria’s unemployment rate has surged from 18.8 per cent in the third quarter of last year (2017) to 23.1 per cent in the third quarter of this year (2018). This is in spite of the report that stated that the economically active or working age population (15 to 64 years of age) increased from 111.1 million in third quarter of 2017 to 115.5million in same period in 2018.
The NBS statistics indicated that: “The number of persons in the labour force (i.e., people who are able and willing to work increased from 75.94 million in Q3 2015 to 80.66 million in Q3 2016 to 85.1 million in Q3 of 2017 to 90.5 million in Q3, 2018”.
According to the statistics, the total number of people in employment (i.e., with jobs) increased from 68.4 million in Q3 2015, to 68.72 million in Q3 2016, to 69.09 million in Q3 2017 and 69.54 million in Q3 2018. The total number of people in full-time employment (at least 40 hours a week) increased from 51.1 million in Q3 2017 to 51.3 million in Q3, 2018.
It stated further that: “The total number of people in part-time employment (or underemployment) decreased from 13.20 million in Q3 2015 to 11.19 million in Q3 2016 but increased to 18.02 million in Q3 2017 and to 18.21 million in Q3 2018.”
It added that the total number of people classified as unemployed, without any job at all or worked too few hours (under 20 hours a week) to be classified as employed increased from 17.6 million in Q4 2017 to 20.9 million in Q3 2018.
And, of the 20.9 million persons classified as unemployed as at Q3 2018, 11.1 million did some form of work but for too few hours a week (under 20 hours) to be officially classified as employed while 9.7 million did absolutely nothing, the NBS said.
“Of the 9.7 million unemployed that did absolutely nothing as at Q3 2018, 90.1percent of them or 8.77 million were reported to be unemployed and doing nothing because they were first time job seekers and have never worked before.
“On the other hand, 9.9 million or 0.9 percent of the 9.7 million that were unemployed and doing nothing at all reported that they were unemployed and did nothing at all because they were previously employed but lost their jobs at some points in the past which is why they were unemployed.
“Of the 9.7 million that were unemployed and did nothing at all, 35.0 percent or 3.4 million have been unemployed and did nothing at all for less than a year, 17.2 percent or 1.6 million for a year, 15.7 percent or 1.5 million had been unemployed and did nothing for two years, and the remaining 32.1 percent or 3.1 million unemployed persons had been unemployed doing nothing for three years and above,” it said.
The report explained that the increasing unemployment and declining underemployment rates implied that the fragile economic recovery had begun to create employment. However, hours worked within these jobs are not yet enough for full time employment (40+ hours within the week).
“While this is ongoing, the inflow of entrants into the labour market continues to grow steadily, minimizing the effect of any jobs created within the economy on the overall unemployment rate.”
On the statistics of unemployed women versus men, the report said 26.6 percent of women within the labour force (aged 16-64 and willing, able, and actively seeking work) were unemployed, 6.3 percent higher than the unemployment rate for men (20.3%), and 3.5 percent higher than the total labour force unemployment rate, which is 23.1 percent.
It stated: “For women, this also represents a 5.4 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate from the same period of last year. Additionally, 25.9 percent of women in the labour force were underemployed, a 4.1 percentage point increase in underemployment for women from the previous year. “In the same period, 20.3 percent of men in the labour force (aged 16-64 and willing, able, and actively seeking work) were unemployed”.
This figure is 3.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year, and 2.8 percentage points lower than the total labour force unemployment rate. Additionally, 15.4 percent of men in the labour force were underemployed, a 5.1 percentage point decline in underemployment rate for men over the same period last year.” Unemployment by dwelling (urban vs rural)
Also, the unemployment rate between urban and rural regions within the quarter under review maintained a similar pattern to that of the general labour force unemployment rate. It showed that in Q3’2018, 23.9 percent of rural and 21.2 percent of urban dwellers within the labour force were unemployed. This represented a 7.5 percentage point increase in unemployment rate for rural dwellers over the same period in 2017, and a 2.2 percentage point decrease in unemployment rate for urban dwellers over the last year. Thus, unemployment increased in the rural areas, while it decreased among urban dwellers during the review period, the bureau said. Rate of employment However, rate of employment, the report noted, increased by four percent to 115.5 million in Q3’18 from 111.1 million in Q3’17.
and then