By Sandra Ijeoma Okoye
Unemployment, no doubt, refers to the situation where individuals who are willing and able, are actively seeking for work, but cannot find any.
Unemployment in most cases is involuntary as people who lose their jobs actively search for another. It can also be voluntary as some people willingly quit their jobs to seek another. Thus, involuntary unemployment is more of a cause for concern than voluntary unemployment, since the later represents preference rather than need.
As gathered from Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, “In 2022, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to reach 33 percent. This figure was projected to at 32.5 percent in the preceding year.
Be that as it may, “Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose constantly in the past years. In the fourth quarter of 2020, over 33 percent of the labor force was unemployed, according to the Nigerian methodology”.
“In Nigeria, the unemployment rate increased to 14.2 per cent at the end of the first quarter this year, up from 13.7 per cent at the end of 2012. This unemployment rate measures the proportion of people actively looking for work as a percentage of the labor force”.
At this juncture, it is necessary to understand the types of unemployment and the difference between each. Unemployment can either be structural, cyclical or frictional.
To put it clearly, frictional unemployment means when worker might find a new job before they leave the old one, but this is not always the case. If for example, a person loses his or her job today, in some instances, the individual will not find a new job the same day. Many workers who are fired or leave their jobs, must wait for some time before they find a new job.
The time between leaving one job and finding another is considered to be frictional unemployment. Frictional unemployment also occurs when students leave school and enter the job market for the first time or if an individual moves to a new city to find work or after a mother gives birth and re-enters the job market.
Under normal circumstances, frictional unemployment is not a cause for concern, as it is usually short lived, especially now where job search is been aided by the Internet and other technology.
However, in Nigeria, the unemployment rate continues to increase as firms continue to lay off workers and more and more students and graduates alike leave school and cannot find jobs. Frictional unemployment might be a source of concern here as economic conditions continue to worsen.
You might have asked, “What are the other types of unemployment?” To answer your question, it is expedient to say that unemployment is usually lower in times of economic boom and prosperity than it is in times of economic depression. The increase in unemployment in Nigeria due to a downturn in macro-economic conditions is referred to as cyclical unemployment.
This cyclical unemployment is associated with changes in the business cycle, as economic conditions worsen, people’s demand for goods and services fall, firms respond by reducing production and lay off workers.
Currently in the Nigerian economy, there are more people willing to work than the number of jobs available, and if economic conditions continue to worsen, more and more firms will continue to lay off workers, and cyclical unemployment will continue to increase.
To combat cyclical unemployment, it is good to focus on the cause of the economic down turn. By so doing, the country can restore overall demand so that firms are forced to produce more, hence hire more. As the economy recovers, cyclical unemployment disappears naturally.
The other type of unemployment exists due to the structure of the economy. Logically, there will not be enough jobs for all the workers who are willing and able. Structural unemployment occurs when workers have jobs skills that are not in high demand, or when more workers have a particular skill than the economy demands at a particular time.
Either way, the structural unemployment is a major cause for concern as it is imbedded in the structure of the economy. To correct this, or at least partially, Nigeria needs a long-term restructuring of the job requirement to skill set match up and retraining of some workers.
“What else is a cause for concern?” You might have also asked. Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to say that along with high, increasing unemployment, labour productivity is also a cause for concern in Nigeria.
“Also, it is not an exaggeration to say that productivity including labour, capital energy and other inputs are drastically falling, with such high unemployment rate and each unit of labor continuously producing less each year, with overall output in the country falling continuously. Unless these issues are addressed in a long-term sustainable manner, it will be difficult for the country to increase output and GDP growth rates will remain dismal on an annual basis.
“It is no longer in doubt that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has become reputed for clarifying problems without proffering solution, What is however worrying is that their (FG) persistent inabilities to promptly respond to the socioeconomic need of Nigerians has adversely turned public affair commentators, development professional and public policy watchers’ to a bunch that keep repeating one topic.
Utomi explained that “This fact recently played out at a lecture in Lagos delivered by the President of African Development Bank, AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina. He said, Adesina, while speaking at the lecture, titled: “Nigeria – A Country of Many Nations: A Quest for National Integration”, lamented the high rate of joblessness among Nigerians, saying about 40 per cent of youths were unemployed. While noting that the youths were discouraged, angry and restless, as they look at a future that does not give them hope, and that he, however, said all hope was not lost as youths have a vital role to play, if the country should arrive at its destined destination.
According to him, Adesina in his speech said, “It is no longer in doubt that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has become reputed for clarifying problems without proffering solution, What is however worrying is that their (FG) persistent inabilities to promptly respond to the socioeconomic need of Nigerians has adversely turned public affair commentators, development professional and public policy watchers’ to a bunch that keep repeating one topic.
To this end, it is expedient to say that in as much as the fact cannot be denied that the challenge of unemployment in the country has reached a worrisome level, it cannot be glossed over that the government, at all levels, need to wake up from it slumber to nip the spiraling social malaise in the bud.
