CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
This chapter provides a broad overview of the employment situation in graduate s which is a major concern of government and their social partner throughout the region. Theapproach is rather general and highlights major issues concerning employment problems and prospects in the region. Because of data limitation, it does not attempt a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the employment situation. it brings with an examination of the employment problems, including background information on its origin and trends, and then looks at the nature and underlying causes of contemporary unemployment. Unemployment of a large portion of the labor force is a central problem now in almost all the underdeveloped countries.
The phenomenon of chronic unemployment has become the major concern of successive Nigerian government. The phenomenon of joblessness creates much concern for the individual Nigerians. According to the 1966 - 67 manpower surveys in Nigeria, the proportion of the labour force in Nigeria not working is 1 - 7 percent, which means that nearly two of every one hundred member of the potential labor are unemployed.
Unemployment has thus reached such an alarming situation today that is perhaps considered the most serious of the problem affecting Nigeria and one that is steadily worsening as the gap between the rapid rising member pressing for work and the new employment opportunities being created widens.
In the underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria however employment benefits are not available to the unemployed. the income level of the great majority of families makes the provision of unemployment benefits virtually impossible thus those unable to find jobs or these discharged from their previous employments re left to fend for themselves. in under developed countries majority of job seekers are therefore forced to create employment for themselves particularly in the rural agricultural sectors where they force disguised unemployment. in the context of this study both those who are disguised unemployment. in the context of this study both those who are disguisedly unemployed and those who are openly unemployed are lumped together as the unemployed.
thus unemployment is define briefly as the negative aspect of the economic process for an unemployed person is one who despite his willingness and capacity to work is unable to do so for reasons inherent in the organization of the commodity production.
1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PPROBLEMS
Unemployment rates are particularly high among graduate and especially among school leaves, giving rise increasingly to the problems of "educated unemployment". paradoxically, graduate unemployment seems to be correlated with levels of education attained in some cases. This is particularly true for school leavers in, for example, Nigeria where the proportion of the unemployed with secondary education increased from 24 to 51 percent between 1974 and 1985. graduate employment rates are probably 3 - 4 times higher than those of older workers, and in many countries in the region open unemployment among graduate as a group in the labour could be as 40 - 50 percent.
Moreover, graduate s and new entrants to the labour force are as well placed as experienced workers to find employment in new opportunities or to go into self employment. Theproblems of graduate unemployment reflect the contraction of jobs in the modern sector and declining rate of job creation in that sector. It also suggests serious labour market distortions related to the development and utilization of human resources in the context
of changing economic circumstances. further, the problem of graduate unemployment islinked to the fact of many African countries, as already noted, continue to record relatively high rates of population growth, and the population structure of some of those countries is overwhelmingly young will children of school going age accounting for as much as half of the total population in some cases.