Jobberman Nigeria has disclosed that over 50 per cent of Nigerian youths are unemployed and unemployable, saying there was a need for urgent intervention to halt the trend.
This was contained in its latest report titled, “How Young People Survive without Jobs”. The report spotlights one of the nation’s key challenges as the year draws to an end.
In a statement released on Monday, the company stated that the 38-page report provides first-hand data on how the Nigerian youths navigate seasons of unemployment, with a focus on the peculiarities of their coping strategies across each geo-political zone, as well as solutions based on data gathered.
Reacting to the report, Jobberman Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Oreoluwa Boboye, said the report was to highlight the challenges and proffer practical solutions to youth unemployment across the country.
“The report is one of our strategic interventions to provide data-backed insights to aid the development of practical solutions to address youth unemployment in Nigeria. For decades, Nigeria has been positioned as a global economic giant due in part to its youth population. Our research shows that if urgent measures are not taken, this economic advantage can become the albatross for lasting underdevelopment,” the statement quoted him as saying.
Also, Jobberman’s Monitoring, Research and Learning Lead, Olamide Adeyeye, said despite the staggering percentage of unemployed youths, those who fall into those categories spend 84 per cent of money sourced from families and friends on food.
We found that more than 50% of the youths are both unemployed and unemployable. It was also interesting to see that these unemployed youths spend over 84% of money sourced from families and friends on food and 10.2% on data. Our research shows that less than one percent of youths across the regions have benefited from social security initiatives from the government.
“As for the gender-specific peculiarities, we discovered that women are less likely to hustle and more frequently depend on other parties. It reduces women’s economic contribution and makes them vulnerable to economic challenges when they are deprived of such third-party support,” Adeyeye said.
The company added that research explores the broader context of youth unemployment factors, ranging from global economic recession, the Ukraine-Russia war to rising insurgency, a monolithic economy and a dysfunctional educational system. It x-rays the disposition of millennials and Gen Z employees to workplace culture and flexibility as well as the desire for fulfillment on the job beyond income from employment.
With the country divided into geo-political zones, the report presents its findings on the regional disparity on how unemployed youths survive with a significant number of respondents affirming that hustling, support from family and friends, and stipends from partners have been their major means of survival.
The report found that one in every five unemployed youth has been without work for more than five years, and more than fifty percent of Nigerian youths are both unemployed and unemployable.
Considering that only 17% percent of Nigerians have wage jobs with the potential to lift them out of poverty, the report canvasses for urgent intervention and proposes region-specific solutions for public and private sector players as well as development partner.
[Punch]
