An Examination of Job Creation and Its Relevance to the Youth Development The Apostolic Church Nigeria Ibadan Area as Case Study
CHAPTER ONE
The objective of the study
The broad objective of this study is an examination of job creation and its relevance to the youth development. Specifically, this study examines;
- To assess the operation, problems and prospects of youth employment programmes in Oyo State.
- To evaluate the impact of youth self job creation on youth development
- To assertain the reason for youth self job creation
- To the determine the attitude of the youth towards self job creation
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Current State of Youth Unemployment in Nigeria
Young people are key players needed for the rapid growth and development of all countries. However, in most countries, young people are constrained by factors that limit their contributions to the society; chief among these is the lack of employment opportunities. Employment is one of the basic indicators of the economic health of a nation; its consequences do not only manifest itself in household poverty but also lead to losses to the economy as a whole in terms of potential output and reduction in human capital (World Bank, 2009).
Youth unemployment has become a critical issue in the political agenda of developed and developing countries even though empirical evidence show that, the nature of the problem is quite different in these two groups of countries with more educated people being unemployed in less developed countries. The world population is estimated to contain about 1.2 million young people (aged 15 to 24) with 87% of them living in developing countries (United Nations, 2007). The share of the youth who are employed declined from 49.2 to 44.5 percent between 1997 and 2007 (ILO, 2008), even though youth unemployment rate is seen as one of the major indicators of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and accounts for about one-half of global unemployment (World Bank, 2006).
In most countries, the ratio of youth- to- adult unemployment rate equals three (ILO, 2006), which clearly shows the difficulties young people face in accessing employment opportunities in the labour market. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 3 in 5 of the total unemployed are youth (ILO, 2006), and an average of 72% of its youth population lives below poverty line (World Bank, 2010).
Unemployment is one of the key developmental problems facing every developing economy in the 21st century. The Nigerian economy since the attainment of political independence in 1960 has undergone fundamental structural changes. The domestic structural shifts have however not resulted in any significant and sustainable economic growth and development. In the Second National Development Plan, the problem that informed the policy adopted on employment was the emergence of the high rate of unemployment among the youth. Findings show that 70 percent of the unemployed were youth between 15 and 23 years of age (Adebayo, 1999).
Available data from the National Universities Commission (2004) pointed out that, massive unemployment exists among most graduates of tertiary institutions in the country; a situation that was said to be traceable to the disequilibrium between labor market requirements and essential employment skills of these graduates. The rate of unemployment in the country was at a considerable figure of 1.7% per annum during the ‘60s with the total unemployment rate among the youth (aged between 15 and 29 years) being 10.5%. In the 1970s, the fourth National Development Plan (1981-1985) noted that urban unemployment had risen between 8% and 15% in the urban centers with Oyejide (1974) noting that the rate of open urban unemployment only revealed the visible aspects of the problems of unemployment situation in the country.
The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was implemented in the country in 1986, a development that led to the closure of many industries while the few that survived were forced to retrench a large percentage of their workforce; a situation which further increased the country’s unemployment rate. Specifically, total disengagements from the federal civil service rose from 2,724 in 1980 to 6,294 in 1987 (Odusola, 2001). In recent years, increasing unemployment has affected professionals and graduates. According to a 1974 survey reported by Aigbokan (2000), graduate unemployment accounted for less than 1% of the unemployed in 1974, but by 1984 the figure rose to 4% for urban areas and 2.1% in rural areas. Graduate unemployment in the words of Dabelen et al (2000) accounted for about 32 percent of the unemployed labour force between 1992 and 1997.
CHAPTER THREE
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Research Design
Concerning the present study, descriptive research design was used. The main aim of descriptive research is that it enabled to get an accurate and valid representation of the factors or variables that are relevant to the research questions. It therefore helped to describe and assess the relationship between youth self job creation and youth development.
Study population
The target population in the present study is 110,979 living in Apostlic Church Area in Ibadan which is a selected case study area.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The following paragraph intends to provide the analysis of the data collected from 96 inhabitants selected randomly from Apostolic Church Area in Ibadan. Results were presented and discussed by using tables which present frequencies and percentages of respondents depending on their responses.
Identification of respondents
This section helps us to know whether the information gathered from the field survey is related to the demographic characteristics of respondents.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The decline of in employment has affected the youth in both rural and urban areas but particularly in towns. In Apostlic Church Area in Ibadan where the study was conducted, the youth equally have had such problems of unemployment. However, there have been various interventions by the Nigerian government to address the challenge of youth employment through human capital development like national youth dialogue and youth forum. This has inspired the youth to be awakened and start to create self-employment in order to survive the hazards of unemployment. The results showed that the measures taken by the government of Nigeria to help the youth to create their own employments have yield results as the majority of the youth surveyed have agreed that self-employment prove youth benefits to them as well o the country in general. However, the results showed that they are still challenges that they tough still face while striving to create their own employments. Finally, solutions, proposed such as provision of training, provision of youth enterprise development fund, among others. Finally, the section below provides recommendations based on the findings.
Recommendations
Depending on the results of the study, the following recommendations were formulated.
The youth should be committed to start their own employments
The youth should gather in cooperatives in order to consolidate their efforts and be eligible to get loan opportunities.
The young people should increase training and other learning opportunities in order to develop skills which are needed in self-employment
With reference to the findings, the following recommendations were addressed to the government of Nigeria:
Establish youth enterprise development fund to facilitate the youth who want to create self-employment.
Sensitize the youth about self-employment.
Emphasize technical education to enable youth have skills which are need create their own job.
Provide quality education which able to transfer knowledge skills and attitudes can help the youth ha sense of creativity
Other study may be conducted on the following topics:
- Analyze the impact of youth forum on youth development
- Examine the contribution of youth initiatives on eradication of youth delinquency
- Assess the role of the youth on youth development
References
- Adams, J (1991): “The Rural Labour Market in Zimbabwe”. Data and Change.
- African Youth Report (2011): Addressing the youth education and employment nexus in the new global economy; Economic Commission for Africa, Ethiopia.
- Agu, M.N (2008): Using IT to reduce poverty and create wealth conference: proceedings of the Nigerian Computer Society, Abuja, Nigeria.
- Aigbokan, B.E (2000): Poverty, Growth and Inequality in Nigeria, a Case study. African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). Nairobi, Kenya.
- Aluko, S (1975): “Poverty: its remedies in poverty alleviation in Nigeria. The Nigerian Economic Society, Ibadan. Ashton D, Maguire M, and V. Garland (1982): Youth in the Labour Market. Research Paper No 34. Department of
- Employment, London.
- Ashton, D and M. Maguire (1983): The Vanishing Youth Labour Market, London Youth aid.
- Ashton D, Maguire M, and M. Spilsbury (1990): Restructuring the Labour Market; the Implications for Youth, London, Macmillan
- Bannock, A et al (1998): Penguin Dictionary of Economics, 6th Edition; the Penguin Books.
- Betcherman, Gordon et al (2004): Impact of Active Labour Market Programmes: New evidence and evaluation with particular attention to Developing and Transitional economies; Washington D.C, Social Protection Discussion Paper series 0402
- Briggs, J.E (1973): Unemployment statistics and what they mean; Monthly Labour Bulletin, Washington D.C, US Department of Labour.
- CIA World Fact Book (2007): Nigeria’s Unemployment rate.
- Curtain, R (2000): Identifying the basis for youth employment strategy aimed at transition and developing economies: concept paper.
- Cunningham, W, Cohan, L and Mccunnis, L (2008): Supporting Youth at Risk; A Policy Toolkit for Middle Income Countries, Washington D.C, the World Bank.
- Dar, A and Tazannatos, P.Z, (1999): “Active Labour Markets Programmes; A Review of the Evidence from Evaluation”, Social Protection Discussion Paper, No 9901, January. The World Bank, Washington D.C.
- Diabelen, A, Oni, B and Adekola, A (2000): Labour market prospects for university graduates in Nigeria. World Bank Research Paper.
- Egbue, N.G (2006): Youth Alienation and High Incidence of Sexual Violence in Nigeria; A case study of Anambra State. Multidisciplinary Journal of Empirical Research 3(3), pp 115-119.