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Coping Mechanism Among Unemployed Graduates
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CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Unemployment
among graduates in Nigeria is one of the most critical problems the
country is facing. Nigeria is a country passing through multiple
transitions, form the period of colonialism to independence, from
illiteracy to literacy, subsistence agriculture to monetary economy,
rural life to urban cosmopolitan life, form the day of employment to the
days of mass unemployment. Year after year in Nigeria, the increasing
number of graduates joining the labour market keeps rising geometrically
and any hope for them to secure jobs looks pessimistic. The tempo of
economic development does not keep pace with the rate of educational
advancement. That a developing country should suffer from surplus labour
is hardly surprising, but generally, unemployment is one thing and
graduate unemployment is another. Unemployment has in all their
ramifications come to stay with us since the era of oil boom.
According
to Daily Star, June 30 1986, unemployment is described as a situation
where there are few jobs to go round the great number of people willing
to work". Here, it could be both educated and uneducated people in the
country. Graduates unemployment has become some of the basic economic
social and political problems facing so many states in Nigeria recently.
The graduates in this context are' generally the school leavers from
our post primary and higher schools of learning. This pitiable "labour
forces" that are left redundant are ever ready to put in their best
services in any kind of jobs, but would not be called upon to do so
because of the situation in the country.
In Lagos metropolis, there
has been a persistent increase in the number of unemployed graduates of
institutions of higher learning. It is a problem that has consistently
forced itself on the minds of different people in different ages. It is
time we redressed our mind sincerely to the issue of graduate
unemployment. The past government officials in the state had failed to
give an accurate employment figure of the labour force available. and
this has perpetuated to pose some dangerous threats to the
socio¬economic stability of the state than usual.
On this note,
therefore, it becomes imperative to give a brief definition of
unemployment. According to Wikipedia, Unemployment (or joblessness)
occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work. The
unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it
is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed
individuals by all individuals currently in the labor
force(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment). Also, according to
Nigeria Statesman May 28, 1986, "Unemployment connotes the scarcity of
job both in public and private sectors. This may be traceable to
mismanagement of productive resources, immobility of labour between
jobs, economic crisis like oil doom etc. especially in our predominately
capitalist economy.
Unlike in the past, graduates of schools of
higher learning now roam the streets and motor parks in search of
non-existing job opportunities and this has created immeasurable number
of social and economic problems in the status quo of the society. This
problem therefore, is of staggering magnitude because idleness
influences all our actions and designs. It corrupts the graduates and is
the bane of the middle ages. This research is also intended to find out
the root causes of the increasing number of unemployed graduates and
the strategies designed by graduates to cope with it.
It is of
paramount importance to stress that no other economic problem needed
more immediate attention than finding job for the growing number of
unemployed graduates. In the light of these problems, the former Head of
State and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces General Sani Abacha in
his 1st October, 1995 broadcast lifted the ban on employment. There is
no doubt that the country has witnessed an upsurge in crime such as drug
addiction and sophisticated armed robberies while broken homes,
malnutrition and many other social vices are on the increase too.
Other
factors that contributed to this situation also remain an integral part
of this research. Such factors include the expansion of the existing
schools and establishment of new schools without a collateral increase
in industries to absorb produced graduates, the behaviour of graduate
'themselves towards jobs like farming construction of roads, bridges,
school taxi cars and also the over-dependence of a mono-export-oriented
economy etc. the efforts of the previous government in areas of infusion
of skill¬ orientation in educational scheme will be scrutinized in
order to have a balanced an analysis. Did the government evolves
stringent measures aimed at eradicating problem of unemployment in the
state or did they apply the myopic machineries which appealed to policy
makers because of case or execution?
The answer to this question with
relevance to the historical background of Akala area of Mushin, Lagos
requires meticulous evaluation in order to find a lasting solution. The
researcher will therefore, use questionnaire and review of past work in
the same direction. Most regrettably, however, there is scarcity of
domestic data relating to the number of unemployed graduate of school of
higher learning.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This paper explores how unemployed graduates cope through various strategies.Unemployment in Nigeria, particularly in the form of graduate unemployment, has become pronounced in the last two decades due primarily to upsurge in the output from tertiary education and inelastic labour absorptive capacity of the Nigerian labour market for the services of university and polytechnic graduates. The study employed both primary and secondary sources of data collection such: as survey design, interviews a ... Continue reading---
