International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume VI, Issue X, October 2022|ISSN 2454-6186
Impact of Unemployment on Economic Growth in Nigeria from 1974- 2015
Atiman Kasima Wilson1*, Mathias Mathew Madu2, Amina Bala Usman1
1Department of General Studies, Federal Polytechnic, Bali, Nigeria
2Department of Cooperative Economics, Adamawa State Polytechnic,Y o la, Nigeria
*Corresponding author
Abstract: The study investigated the impact of unemployment on Economic Growth in Nigeria from 1974- 2015. Unemployment has been a monster bedevilling the Nigeria economy for many decades. The objectives of the study includes to examine the trend of unemployment from 1974-2015. The study used secondary data obtained from World Development indicators where the Auto regressive- Distributed Lag (ARDL) was analysed using Eviews 10. The study found Gross Domestic Product- GDP to be positively related to the first and third lagged values and their coefficients significant. The study also adopted the Endogenous growth theory which proves that b economic growth is mainly the result of internal forces. The study found that unemployment has been rising over many decades despite government conscious effort to tackle unemployment. The study further recommended an increase in government funding to boost Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) in order to reduce unemployment which will further promote economic growth
I. INTRODUCTION
Nigeria has been battling with the problem of unemployment since the 1980s.This led to the establishment of National Directorate of employment (NDE) in March 1986. The main objective and responsibility of the NDE was job creation to the large army of unemployed in the country. This responsibility also included designing, articulating policies and maintaining a data bank on unemployment vacancies in the country.
One of the greatest challenges of every economy is unemployment. The problem of unemployment has been of great concern to economist and policy makers in Nigeria since the early 1980s (Kemi and Dayo,2015). They also opined that the Nigerian economy in the 1960s and 1970s provided jobs for the teeming population and absorbed considerable imported labour in the scientific sector and the wage rate was compared favourably with international standards until after 1970s where there was oil boom leading to rapid migration of youths to urban areas in search of wage employment. But, following the downturn of the economy in the 1980s, the problem of unemployment started to manifest. According to Omoniyi (2016), the most pressing problem in Nigeria apart from boko haram insurgency in the 21st century is still unemployment. Unemployment is defined as the inability to obtain a job or employment when one is willing and able to work. According to Gawel(2010), connections between the situation in the labour market and entrepreneurship are of at least two kinds : firstly, the situation on the labour market, especially connected with unemployment, is often treated as negative motivation for