The Effectiveness of Government Employment Policies in Nigeria

Abstract

Rising unemployment accompanied by social vices among young people is threatening the very foundation of Nigeria as a nation. Successive governments in Nigeria had adopted various policies to create jobs and reduce unemployment. In spite of these various Federal Government employment policies of successive governments in Nigeria, unemployment rare has continued to rise unabated. This has informed the need to embark on the present study with a view to determining the extent to which various employment generation programmes of the government had proved effective for achieving full employment in Nigeria, The design was essentially a descriptive survey. Data were sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics, Abuja and Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja. Data were analyzed using times series components of trend, seasonal variation and random factors. Coefficient of determination was also used for the analysis. The study shows that employment policies of successive governments were not yet adapted to achieving full employment. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for an increased labour-promoting employment generation strategy to create more jobs that will help to reduce the high current open unemployment in Nigeria.