Abstract
The thrust of this study is to curb unemployment rate through job creation using some key sectors of the economy specifically the manufacturing, agricultural and industrial sectors as the basis for attaining an inclusive growth in Nigeria particularly with the increasing rate of youth unemployment booming the Country. This is demonstrated by the agricultural, manufacturing and industrial policies, programmes and strategies initiated, designed and executed to retard the alarming unemployment rate. The short-run and long-run dynamics streaming from inclusive growth proxied by real gross domestic product per capita, agricultural sector proxied by real agricultural output, manufacturing sector proxied by real manufacturing output, industrial sector proxied by real industrial output and openness measured by export as percentage of real gross domestic product to unemployment rate were evaluated using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach for the period 1970 to 2014. The Estimated results from the study reveals that, improvement in the agricultural, manufacturing and industrial sectors will significantly aid in reducing the problems of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. Even though the manufacturing sector shows no contribution to reducing unemployment, this could be as a result of the use of some equipment which has taken the place of labour thereby making it redundant. Though, if the teeming unemployed populace is adequately trained in the right direction, the manufacturing sector can still absorbed them. To this effect, the study recommended Government to give utmost priority to the key indicators that are needful at a given period of time in order to ascertain the right combination of the sectors in which these scarce resources should be directed to with the intention of enhancing inclusive growth.
Highlights
In most developing countries and Nigeria, unemployment is becoming an increasingly alarming and worrisome socio-economic malaise looming the fortunes of the country since youths are the worst stroke
The variables used in the study include Unemployment Rate (UEMR), inclusive growth to be proxied by real Gross domestic product per capita (GPC), Agriculture sector to be proxied by real agricultural output (AGRIC), manufacturing sector to be measured by real manufacturing output (MANUF), Industrial sector to be measured by real industrial output (INDUS), and openness measured by export as percentage of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (OPNX)
Where UEMR; Unemployment rate, GPC; Inclusive growth to be measured via real Gross Domestic product per capita, AGRIC; Agricultural sector to be proxied by real agricultural output, MANUF; Manufacturing sector to be proxied by real manufacturing output, INDUS; Industrial Sector to be measured by real industrial output and OPNX; Openness proxied by export as percentage of real GDP
Summary
In most developing countries and Nigeria, unemployment is becoming an increasingly alarming and worrisome socio-economic malaise looming the fortunes of the country since youths are the worst stroke. Can leads to inclusive growth in Nigeria, certain governmental programmes and policies were inaugurated such as the introduction of vocational courses in the educational curriculum in 1997, the creation of the National Directorate of Employment in 1986 solely for skills acquisition; industrialization programmes and policies; the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy designed in 2004 with one of its goal tuned towards fighting unemployment and the Agricultural programmes and policies geared at generating employment for graduates, non-graduates and school leavers in the Agricultural sector coupled with election promises (Nkwatoh, 2012; Udo, 2014). This research will appraise efforts of the past governments in purposive job creation geared towards curtailing unemployment in Nigeria over the period 1970 to 2014
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