WHY MANY GRADUATES ARE UNEMPLOYED
Graduates, graduates everywhere
— 25th June 2016
…Now, see what many of them do to survive
By KATE HALIM AND VERA WISDOM BASSEY
CHIDINMA Ifediba is tired. She is fed up hunting for job. When she graduated from the university four years ago with a second class upper degree, she was optimistic about her career path. But all her high hopes have been dashed by the biting unemployment situation in Nigeria.
Right now, Chidinma is selling recharge cards, soft drinks and snack just to keep body and soul together. Her daily routine involves getting up at 5am to prepare her products. She then puts them in a wheelbarrow, put the drinks in a cooler with ice block and positions herself at the bus stop close to her parent’s house at Ojulelegba, Lagos.
For her customers who enjoy her daily delicacy, she’s just a young woman trying to make ends meet, but she considers herself an unfulfilled woman who has not fully realised her life’s dreams. She hopes that one day, luck will smile on her and she will get a job. Until then, she remains an accidental businesswoman.
Chidinma is not alone. She is among millions of Nigerian graduates who are unemployed after struggling to scale through the university, polytechnics and colleges of education and came out with good degrees.
Many Nigerians are used to seeing these graduates parading the streets looking for paid employments years after leaving school and observing the mandatory national youth service. No matter how hard many of them struggle, make postulations and position themselves, they seem not to be making headways as unemployment rate keeps rising in the country.
Some of these graduates have perfected the art of flooding mega churches just to get connected to their prospective employers. While some have been lucky in this regard, others still wobble in the face of unemployment.
Their family members and friends are not left out of the hunt for jobs. They keep calling, sending messages and even visiting friends and family members to see if there is an opening in their organizations.
Sometimes, people close to them would stop picking their calls or responding to their messages. They do that not because they are wicked or heartless, but because they have no jobs to offer.
Scary unemployment statistics
In March 2016, The National Bureau of Statistics released the country’s labour statistics for the fourth quarter of 2015 with the report putting the country’s unemployment rate at 10.4 per cent.
In the report, the bureau explained that the 10.4 per cent in unemployment rate for the fourth quarter was an increase of 500 basis point over the 9.9 per cent recorded in third quarter of 2015. It said as was the case in previous quarters, unemployment and underemployment was higher for women than men in the fourth quarter of 2015.
For instance, the report stated that while 12.3 per cent of women in the labour force (those between 15‐65 willing, able and actively working or searching for work) were unemployed in Q4 2015, another 22.0 per cent of women in the labour force were underemployed in Q4 2015.
On the other hand, 8.8 per cent of males were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2015, while another 15.7 per cent of males in the labour force were underemployed during the same period.
It reported that Nigeria with an unemployment rate of 10.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 has a better unemployment rate than in 66 countries but worse than 111 countries, including 23 African countries which have unemployment rates lower than 10.4 per cent.
The report reads in part, “Unemployment is not just a Nigerian problem. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on whose recommendation most countries in the world unemployment methodology is based including Nigeria, states that 201 million people globally are unemployed and this may rise to 219 million by 2019.
“With eight million Nigerians technically unemployed (not including the remaining 14.4mn underemployed), this means four per cent of the world’s unemployed are Nigerians.
“If we add the number of underemployed in Nigeria in the interest of seeking full time and gainful employment for Nigerians, then Nigeria will represent about 14 per cent of global unemployment.”
Why there are many unemployed graduates
Lack of employment options and opportunities for Nigerian graduates cannot be ignored. But when severely probed, human resource experts and management consultants fire back that many of Nigerian graduates are unemployable.
Mr. Ayodele Ogunleye, a human resource personnel with one of the technology companies in Lagos stated that many unemployed graduates lack the required skill to be employed.
By KATE HALIM AND VERA WISDOM BASSEY
CHIDINMA Ifediba is tired. She is fed up hunting for job. When she graduated from the university four years ago with a second class upper degree, she was optimistic about her career path. But all her high hopes have been dashed by the biting unemployment situation in Nigeria.
Right now, Chidinma is selling recharge cards, soft drinks and snack just to keep body and soul together. Her daily routine involves getting up at 5am to prepare her products. She then puts them in a wheelbarrow, put the drinks in a cooler with ice block and positions herself at the bus stop close to her parent’s house at Ojulelegba, Lagos.
For her customers who enjoy her daily delicacy, she’s just a young woman trying to make ends meet, but she considers herself an unfulfilled woman who has not fully realised her life’s dreams. She hopes that one day, luck will smile on her and she will get a job. Until then, she remains an accidental businesswoman.
Chidinma is not alone. She is among millions of Nigerian graduates who are unemployed after struggling to scale through the university, polytechnics and colleges of education and came out with good degrees.
Many Nigerians are used to seeing these graduates parading the streets looking for paid employments years after leaving school and observing the mandatory national youth service. No matter how hard many of them struggle, make postulations and position themselves, they seem not to be making headways as unemployment rate keeps rising in the country.
Some of these graduates have perfected the art of flooding mega churches just to get connected to their prospective employers. While some have been lucky in this regard, others still wobble in the face of unemployment.
Their family members and friends are not left out of the hunt for jobs. They keep calling, sending messages and even visiting friends and family members to see if there is an opening in their organizations.
Sometimes, people close to them would stop picking their calls or responding to their messages. They do that not because they are wicked or heartless, but because they have no jobs to offer.
Scary unemployment statistics
In March 2016, The National Bureau of Statistics released the country’s labour statistics for the fourth quarter of 2015 with the report putting the country’s unemployment rate at 10.4 per cent.
In the report, the bureau explained that the 10.4 per cent in unemployment rate for the fourth quarter was an increase of 500 basis point over the 9.9 per cent recorded in third quarter of 2015. It said as was the case in previous quarters, unemployment and underemployment was higher for women than men in the fourth quarter of 2015.
For instance, the report stated that while 12.3 per cent of women in the labour force (those between 15‐65 willing, able and actively working or searching for work) were unemployed in Q4 2015, another 22.0 per cent of women in the labour force were underemployed in Q4 2015.
On the other hand, 8.8 per cent of males were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2015, while another 15.7 per cent of males in the labour force were underemployed during the same period.
It reported that Nigeria with an unemployment rate of 10.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 has a better unemployment rate than in 66 countries but worse than 111 countries, including 23 African countries which have unemployment rates lower than 10.4 per cent.
The report reads in part, “Unemployment is not just a Nigerian problem. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on whose recommendation most countries in the world unemployment methodology is based including Nigeria, states that 201 million people globally are unemployed and this may rise to 219 million by 2019.
“With eight million Nigerians technically unemployed (not including the remaining 14.4mn underemployed), this means four per cent of the world’s unemployed are Nigerians.
“If we add the number of underemployed in Nigeria in the interest of seeking full time and gainful employment for Nigerians, then Nigeria will represent about 14 per cent of global unemployment.”
Why there are many unemployed graduates
Lack of employment options and opportunities for Nigerian graduates cannot be ignored. But when severely probed, human resource experts and management consultants fire back that many of Nigerian graduates are unemployable.
Mr. Ayodele Ogunleye, a human resource personnel with one of the technology companies in Lagos stated that many unemployed graduates lack the required skill to be employed.
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