FINANCE Minister Olusegun Aganga calls it a paradox, the people felt the pain – as Nigeria ’s economy grows, unemployment increases, poverty grows.

Aganga told a meeting of the National Economic Management Team, the World Bank and employers that, “real GDP has been measuring six per cent or higher in the past five years”. Yet, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, showed national unemployment increased from 11.9 per cent in 2005 to 19.7 per cent in 2009, the highest since 2000.

Why is growth not reflecting on the number of employed Nigerians? Employers list poor infrastructure (power supply and bad roads) among the factors militating against the real sector. Multiple taxes and policy instability are others. These are issues that the government can handle with urgency, since it understands the dire implications of growing unemployment.

The unemployment are grim no matter who states them. “About a quarter (25 per cent) of the working-age citizens are not in the labour force at all. Only 10 per cent of the labour force is in formal waged employment with the rest in the low paid insecure sector,” Richard Sandall of the World Bank said at the event.
“Despite its riches from oil and growing economy, waged employment in Nigeria is actually falling. Only with job growth can Nigeria meet its commitments to poverty reduction and its Vision 2020 objectives.”
Much emphasis is laid on earnings from oil, but it employs less than one per cent of the labour force. Though the figures would give impressions of growth, they are not indicators that jobs are created.

The meeting had selected five areas of continued growth in the economy: ICT, construction, entertainment, tourism, and meat and leather. It wanted ways to expand their abilities to create more jobs. Leather, according to Aganga, is consistently one of Nigeria ’s highest non-oil export earners. None of these areas would continue to grow without infrastructure.

“Youth unemployment is rising in the country, causing unrest and other social problems. Growth has not been in line with the aspirations of the people and has not been driven by higher productivity. The public perception is that there has been little job creation,” said Lead Economist of the World Bank Volker Treichel in his contribution.
Little attention is paid to youth employment, but experts warn that a new generation of unemployed, inexperienced and ill-prepared people are being bred. They would over time be thrust into responsibilities where years of  being unemployed  would affect them.

Many young people who fail to gain employment have become a burden to the few employed ones, who bear the responsibility for meeting the needs of  millions of educated but increasing frustrated group, a wasting generation.
Unemployed youth engage in crimes and other social vices. The police in several reports had said that unemployment was a factor in increased crimes.

A 2009 World Bank report on ‘Employment and Growth’, warned that, “The share of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 outside the labour force is growing, despite the country’s strong growth performance over the years”. The mass sack the Central Bank of Nigeria effected in banks, said experts, could have cost about 7,500 banking jobs. The impact is deep if the multiplier effects are considered.

From the NBS 2009 Report unemployment was highest in Bayelsa State, Katsina State and Akwa Ibom, two of the States are in the restive Niger Delta region. Plateau, Ogun and Benue have the lowest unemployment rates. The statistics prove little comfort to anyone.
Unemployed young people are mobile and can cause troubles in places statistics may not immediately indicate for high unemployment.

Governments’ concerns about unemployment may be genuine. The best proof of government’s seriousness would be provision of infrastructure backed with policies that would regenerate mass employing sectors like manufacturing and agriculture.
Tomes of reports on unemployment have so advised governments. The bigger problem is that governments believe conferences, workshops and stakeholders meetings solve problems. They never do!