CHAPTER ONE
THE IMPACT OF UNEMPLOYMENT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA
1.1 Introduction
Unemployment is defined as an economic condition marked by the fact that individuals actively seeking jobs remain unhired. Unemployment is expressed as a percentage of the total available work force. It is seen as a macroeconomic and sociological problem which arises as a result of insufficient and non-availability of jobs to correspond with the growing population. Even those who are employed, sometimes live with the fear of retrenchment. The term unemployment could be used in relation to all the factors of production. But in reference to labour, there is unemployment if it is not possible to find jobs for all those who are eligible and able to work. Labour is said to be underemployed, if it is working below capacity or not utilized in production employment can either be ‘voluntary’ or ‘involuntary’.
Voluntary unemployment is a situation where somebody chooses not to work because they have means of support other than employment e.g. idle rich man. Voluntary unemployment is attributed to the individuals decision; it includes workers who reject low wage jobs, whereas involuntary unemployment exist because of socio-economic environment (including market structures, government intervention and the level of aggregate demand) in which individuals operate, involuntary unemployment include workers who are fired due to an economic crises, industrial decline, company bankruptcy or organization restructuring unemployment is seen as a worldwide economic problem and has been categorized as one of the serious impediments to social progress. Unemployment is a very serious issue in Africa (VandeMoortele, 1991 and Rama, 1998) and particularly in Nigeria (Oladeji, 1994, Umo, 1996). The need to avert the negative effects of unemployment has made the tacking of unemployment problem to feature very prominently in the development objective of many developing countries.
In the study of unemployment in Africa, Okonkwo (2005) identified three causes of unemployment; the educational system, the choice of technology which can be either be labour intensive or capital intensive and inadequate attention to agriculture. The use of machines to replace work done by labour and computerization has contributed to these social problem. Moreso, lack of enough education and skills to have access to credit and capital.
One peculiar feature of the unemployment problem in Nigeria is that it was more endemic in the early 1980s than any other period. It becomes an acute problem in Nigeria, immediately after independence. The major factor contributing to low standard of living in underdeveloped countries is their relative inadequate on advanced nations. Unemployment rate is given by the proportion of the labour force that is employed divided by the total number of the labour force. The total labour force was projected at 61,249,485 in 2007 indicating an increase of 3.9%. total employment in 2007 stood at 52,326,923 compared with 50,886,836 in 2006. This represents an annual increase of 2.8%. The labour force consists of the number of the people aged 18 and more, who are employed (i.e. those who do not have jobs but are actively looking, for work). Individuals who do not fall into either of these groups such as retired people and discouraged workers are not included in the calculation of labour force.