By Kelechukwu Iruoma

The International Labour  Organization, ILO, in its report on employment trends, has predicted that global unemployment is expected to increase by three million and a further further million in the next four years.

Mr. Dennis Zulu, Officer-in-Charge, ILO Country Office, Abuja, revealed this while delivering a lecture on Youth Unemployment and Job Creation in Nigeria: Challenges & Policy Options at University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos.

He said: “Unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, continues to be a widespread global phenomenon. There is no single country in the world that can claim not to have this problem.

“The global employment outlook will deteriorate in the coming five years. The report estimate that over 201 million people were unemployed in 2014 around the world. This figure is 31 million more than was the case before the start of the global financial and economic crisis in 2008.

“In the report, youths are specifically identified as being particularly vulnerable to unemployment. It further points out that youths, especially young women, continue to be disproportionally affected by unemployment.

“Almost 74 million young people (aged 15-24) were looking for work in 2014. In this regard, the youth unemployment rate is practically three times higher than is the case for their adult counterparts.”

Zulu stated that despite the improvement in educational attainment, youth unemployment was still common to all regions, thereby fuelling social discontent, adding that concerted actions need to be taken immediately if Nigeria and indeed the world was going to stand any chance of surmounting this challenge.

He listed “jobless growth, a growing youth population, unfavourable environment for private sector growth, lack of skills, job creation challenges and bad policy options as the challenges behind Nigeria’s youth unemployment problem.”

Emphasising more on government providing favourable environment for the private sector to invest, which would enable them employ people in Nigeria, he said: “Nigeria’s private sector, including its informal sector, employs more than 80 percent of the country’s workforce and is the primary generator of exports.”