CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
One of the best difficulties of the Sub - Saharan African economies today is the high rate of unemployment that has been on the expansion throughout the years. The issue of youth unemployment has been of incredible worry to the business analysts, economist and policy makers in Nigeria since mid 1980s. The impact of money related emergency on public and private sectors has prompted to reestablish consideration on the wonder. It is a broadly acknowledged view in financial aspects that the development rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an economy builds business and diminishes unemployment. three most noteworthy components for the economy general are efficiency, wage conveyance and unemployment. This hypothetical suggestion relating yield and unemployment has been proposed by Okun (1962). This relationship is among the most celebrated in macroeconomics hypothesis and has been found to hold for a few nations and locales principally, in created nations (Christopoulos, 2004; Daniels and Ejara, 2009).
Okun's (1962) proposes a negative relationship between developments of the unemployment rate and the genuine total national output (GDP) by concentrating on the observational relationship amongst unemployment and GDP varieties. He underscored that subsequently of changes in total request, industry changes their creation design which prompts to changes sought after for work which adjust the unemployment rates.
Unemployment and neediness are both intelligent and precipitants of plenty of contemporary societal difficulties, for example, authority, security, administration, and so on that are unfriendly to human social-presence (for causing sufficient human limit building and material use) all around. In this manner, an awesome vision of Nigerian government is commenced on getting to be distinctly one of the 20 most industrialized economies in the world by the year 2020. Attainment of this aspiration hinges on the extent to which the country is able to create and nurture, a competitive and adaptive human resource base, responsive to the rapidly industrializing and globalizing economy. The paper is mindful of the fact that vision 20:2020 designed by the Nigerian government is five years away. Equally and poignantly is to remind ourselves that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), (we are already in its target: year 2015).Hence its assessment. In spite of all lofty ideas inherent in these programs, what is crystal clear is that poverty is still enormously ravaging the land. What becomes more worrisome is considering the teaming population of unemployed graduate youths in the country. Unemployment or joblessness as defined by the International Labor Organization (1982) occurs when people are without jobs and they have sought work within the past five weeks. 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. Unemployment in Nigeria is defined as the proportion of labor force that was available for work but did not work in the week preceding the survey period for at least 39 hours. Official figures from Bureau of Statistics puts the figure of unemployed at 19.70 percent, about 30 million, but this figure still did not include about 40 million other Nigerian youths captured in World Bank Statistics in 2010. By implication, it means that if Nigeria’s population is 160 million plus, then 50 percent or more of Nigerians are unemployed, Njoku and Okezie (2011) asserted.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Unemployment is a virus that can contaminate or corrupt any economy no matter how viable it is. This is because labor is one of the major factors of production, this factor of production no matter how viable it is, it has a period of productivity. When the youth are unemployed it tend to lead them to social vices and crimes, some of this activity as a result of idleness may lead to the destruction of lives and property. It is on this backdrop that the researcher intend to investigate the impact of youth unemployment and economic growth.
1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to ascertain the effect of youth unemployment on economic growth. However, for the successful completion of the study, the researcher intend to achieved the following sub-objectives:
i) To ascertain the impact of unemployment on economic growth
ii) To ascertain the relationship between youth unemployment and economic growth
iii) To ascertain ways of eradicating youth unemployment in our society
iv) To analyze the effect of unemployment on the productivity of the economy.
1.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
For the successful completion of the study, the following research hypotheses are formulated
H0: unemployment does not have any significant impact on the economic growth
H1: unemployment has a significant impact on the economic growth of the economy.
H0: there is no significant relationship between youth unemployment and economic growth
H2: there is a significant relationship between youth unemployment and economic growth.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is perceived that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great benefit to ministry of labor and productivity in their quest to combat unemployment in the country.
The findings will also be of great importance to the Nigeria labor congress in their quest to protect the interest of its members, the study will also be of great importance to the employers of labor in their choice of employment which will aid them in obtaining the best from their employee.
Finally the study will be of great importance to researchers as it will serve as a source of information to any one that want to embark on research on similar topic
1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope of the study covers youth unemployment and economic growth, however there are some limitations o he scope of the study. Below are some of the constrains:
Finance: is a major limitation to the scope of the study, as available resources does not allow for a wider scope
Time: the time allocated to the research work is limited because of other academic works
Availability of research materials: material for this work is not readily available as the researcher has to go to the field and source for materials.
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Unemployment
Unemployment is a phenomenon that occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work. Unemployment is often used as a measure of the health of the economy. The most frequently measure of unemployment is the unemployment rate, which is the number of unemployed people divided by the number of people in the labor force.
Economic growth
Economic growth is the increase in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy over time. It is conventionally measured as the percent rate of increase in real gross domestic product, or real GDP, usually in per capita terms.
Growth is usually calculated in real terms i.e., inflation adjusted terms to eliminate the distorting effect of inflation on the price of goods produced.
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period (quarterly or yearly). Nominal GDP estimates are commonly used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region, and to make international comparisons.
1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows
Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlight the theoretical framework on which the study its based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding. Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.
