ABSTRACT

This study attempt to examine the graduate unemployment in Nigeria: A case study of Sokoto Metropolis, Sokoto State. It seeks to identify the determinants of graduate unemployment in the metropolis. The data used it was primary in nature. The sampling techniques adopted was non probability sampling; the technics used is accidental non probability sampling. The instrument of data collection used was Questionnaire method; 200 copies were distributed within the Sokoto metropolis, 184 were retrieve 16 were not retrieve. The variable of the study are; unemployment challenge by the graduate, subject studied by the graduate, faculty graduated from, and class of degree. The method of analysis used are multiple regression, independent T-test, descriptive statistics. The result reveal that second class lower, History, Faculty of Arts, and Faculty of social sciences a found to the determinant of graduate unemployment in the state. Also in terms of Gender it was found, that there is negative significant difference between male and female graduate in the state. The study concludes that graduate s that graduated from Faculty of Arts and social sciences are the one likely, facing graduate unemployment in the state. The study recommends that there is need for state-university collaboration so that to know the required graduates an economy need at a time. Another policy implication is that, there is need for government intervention to avoid skills miss-match among graduate in the state so that to reduce the rate of graduate unemployment.

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter seeks to give a general introduction of the entire research work. It starts with the background to the study. Statement of the problem and the objectives of the study are also presented in this chapter. The chapter also states the hypotheses of the study, purpose, its significance, scope, limitations, assumption, as well as the scheme of chapters.

1.1 Background Of The Study

There is no uncertainty that unemployment is the one of the problem facing countries of the world including developed and developing economies are been faced with this saga. It has been found that unemployment found to be growing rapidly year in year out, the nature of it is graduate unemployment which is ravaging the country for decade. This issue apply more distorting impact on the developing economy. In the word of Ekpo (2008), a developing economy such as Nigeria’s is faced with poor growth performance which manifests in the rising incidence of poverty, massive graduate unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, worsening balance of payments disequilibrium, monumental external debt burden, widening income disparity and growing fiscal imbalances, which taken together can be said to constitute major causes of underdevelopment. In all, rising graduate unemployment poses the most pervasive and devastative effect which threatens the productivity of the Nigerian economy (Ake, 2010). Also, it’s indicate that the demand also will be affected.

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In other angle People who are either unfit for work for physical or mental reason, or don’t want work e.g. Sadhus are excluded from the category of the unemployed (Ahuja, 2008). Also according to Sule Ahmad Gusau (2005) unemployment exist if those who are willing to work and able to work cannot get job. In the other aspect Graduate unemployment is define as unemployment among people who have graduated from tertiary institution and who are qualified to work but do not work at any given point in time. In the Nigerian context, graduate unemployment refers to a situation where tertiary institution graduate after finishing their nation youth service corps (NYSC), and is willing and able to work but fail to secure job Aboidun (2010). It was found that the acquisition of a University degree was once considered as a sure guarantee for securing a paid employment either in the public or the private sector (Idowu, 1987). The reverse has been the case in Nigeria. For several decades, the issue of graduate unemployment has remained intractable.

The discussion on the issue of graduate unemployment in Nigeria has become a national concern as the unemployed youths tend to be more desperate, depressed and unhappy with their attendant sleeplessness than those with jobs. This situation has not only posed a great challenge to the economy but has also led to the retarded state of the country’s economic growth. The high rate of graduate unemployment in Nigeria according to Adeyeye etal. (2012), can be associated with lack of adequate provision for job creation in the development plans, the ever expanding educational growth and the desperate desire on the part of youths to acquire tertiary education irrespective of the social and economic reality. Consequently, a number of skills acquired from these tertiary institutions appear dysfunctional and irrelevant since most of the skills and knowledge acquired in tertiary institutions are kept redundant through unemployment and sometimes skills are not fully utilized.

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On the other direction, as the graduate population in Nigeria rising without being absorbed in the active market, labour productivity does not increase at its full potentials, this could be as a result of the failure of government to control this phenomenon over the years in spite of numerous programs and policies on this issue. Without denying the impact of other factors, unemployment has exacerbated social ills and delinquent behavior among youths (most of whom are graduates) especially armed robbery, political thuggery, advanced fee fraud and the recent spate of terrorism (Boko Haram) in Nigeria, which has been on rampage for the past 4 years, forcing the government to be spending a lot of money on crime control. Recent statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that about 10 million Nigerians were unemployed. In fact, this number swells by 120,000 graduates each year, which are produced with little or no jobs waiting for them. (NBS 2009). It was trying to explain that there is an increase in the supply of graduate but there is no demand for them.

In the process to address the problem of unemployment, many policies have been lunched by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The well-known are; the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) was established in 2003 to promote the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector of the Nigerian economy. It is to source, process and disseminate business information, develop policy, establish business support programs, build capacity and promote services, enhance MSME access to finance. Others are the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) Limited which is centered to financing agriculture at both micro and macro levels. They are to provide affordable financial and advisory services to the farm and non-farm enterprises of the Nigerian economy using well trained and highly motivated staff, backed by appropriate technology. Those that were established but later scrapped include: the Directorate for food Roads and Rural Infrastructures otherwise known as (DFRRI), Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance and Economic Reconstruction

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(MAMSER) and the National Agricultural Land Development Project (NALDA). These were created by the Babangida regime but scrapped by the Abacha regime.

Among all, the most innovative of these Programme is the National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS) introduced by the Federal Government in 1987. The NOAS is an attempt to link education with training and labour demand. It was managed by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) under the Ministry of Labour and Productivity. The NDE is a policy document that addresses the provision of graduate level of employment, the essence of this is to know how government policy should be used effectively in the reduction of graduate unemployment and enhance productivity in Nigeria. This was also meant to provide vocational education and training to unemployed youth in over 100 occupations. The main objective of these government programs and policies is to provide means of livelihood to able but idle army of unemployed youths, especially the graduates and give assurance to the private sector through the services of the youths. Unluckily, the identified low demand of graduate result in high level of graduate unemployment over the years in the country have shown that no meaningful progress has been made by these programs and policies. It is against this background that this study is designed to investigate the causes of unemployment among degree graduate in Sokoto state, Nigeria and its consequences in an economy.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

Controlling graduate unemployment and low labour demand in Nigeria has remained a Twin problems facing the country for some decades now. The Nigerian total labour force is made up of all persons aged 15-64 years excluding students, home keepers, retired persons and stay-at home to work or those that are not interested. Nigeria’s unemployment can best be defined as the

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proportion of labour force that was available for work but did not work in the week preceding the survey period for at least 39hours (Asoluka & Okezie, 2009). The 2011 official figures from the international monetary fund (IMF) 2015, put the unemployed figure at 23.90 per cent, about 45 million including graduate are unemployed. The rising trend of unemployment assumed a disastrous scenario in Nigeria a decade after political independence. As noted by Akintoye (2008), between 1970 and 1980, national unemployment rate rose from 4.3 to 6.4% and further rose to 7.1% in 1987. This, according to Akintoye, is attributed to the economic depression which engulfed the nation from 1980, resulting in massive closure of businesses and retrenchment of workers. This was followed by the placement of embargo on recruitment which further worsened the unemployment situation.

The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) lunched in 1986 had on its part, a Positive effect on job creation leading to a sharp decrease in unemployment rate from 7.1% in 1987 to 1.8% in 1995. Thereafter, unemployment figure hovered around 4% between 1996 and 2000. One worrisome trend in the Nigeria labour market of recent has been the growing incidence of unemployment among professionals such as accountants, engineers and other graduates from universities and other tertiary institutions. Graduate unemployment accounted for 32% of the total unemployed labour force between 1992 and 1997 (Akintoye, 2008). This growing incidence of graduate unemployment in the face of acute skill shortages presents a paradox which further complicates the analysis of labour market distortions in Nigeria. (Dabalen et al., 2000).

Predictably, unemployment reduction has stayed a central focus of macroeconomic goals in Nigeria. It is a continuing policy and responsibility of the federal government to use all practical means to promote higher level of employment, production and purchasing power (Essien & Atan, 2006). The most critical factor explaining the rising unemployment in the country is the failure of government policies to consciously tackle graduate unemployment among others. The need to

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avert the negative effects of unemployment and improve labour productivity through effective government policies will make the tackling of unemployment problems to feature prominently in the development objectives of the Nigerian government.

The main cause of graduate unemployment and low demand of graduate is the absence of an appropriate and well implemented government policy to guide the strategies and Programme’s of the various institutions operating in all sectors of the economy (Asoluka & Okezie, 2011). However, efforts by different regimes in Nigeria such as Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SMEs) and National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) in 2001 to generate more employment and improve labour productivity to a large extent have not yielded the required results (Essien & Atan, 2006).

To the best of my knowledge no research has found been conducted on the issue of graduate unemployment in Sokoto state, so because of this I become very interested to contribute my quota in academia. So, In view of the revealed reality coupled with the extended debates in the literature, this study is built to examine the causes of unemployment among degree graduate in Sokoto state, Nigeria. In carrying this out it will be guided by the following research questions.

1.      What are the determinants of unemployment among degree graduates?

2.      What is the differences in the causes of unemployment between male and female graduates?

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1.3 Aim and objective of the study

The broad objective is causes of unemployment among degree graduate in Sokoto state,

Nigeria. Which will be achieved through the following specific objectives:

1.        To identify the determinants of unemployment among degree graduates.

2.        To examine the differences in the causes of unemployment between male and female graduates

1.4 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is find out the determinant of graduate unemployment in the state, then to extent does these determinant influences graduate unemployment. Also, to identify the difference in the causes of unemployment between male and female graduates; means to assess if there is any difference between male and female graduates in the state in terms of employment. This study is also, focus only on the aspect of degree graduate why are they facing graduate unemployment. That is the reason why this study is carry out.

1.5 hypothesis of the study

One: