February 02, 2021 - BY Admin
An increase in technology adoption in businesses will see an estimated 46% of work activities in Nigeria susceptible to automation according to the World Economic Forum. COVID-19 is accelerating the development of digital businesses and simultaneously changing the landscape of the jobs market for young people. But how ready is Nigeria’s booming youth population to take on these new digital job roles?
With a population of approximately 200 million, Nigeria is home to half of West Africa’s young people, estimated at over 100 million, between the ages of 15-35 years old. In theory, this would appear to be the ideal mass community to power the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, the current state of the labour market highlights a far from ideal reality; at first glance, one out of three young people are unemployed and recent data revealed jobseekers are applying for more than 20 jobs per day. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, underemployment amongst youth between 15 – 34 years rose to 57% in Q2’2020. This, in part, suggests that young people are either underpaid or holding positions in the workplace they are overqualified for. Also, more women are unemployed as 63% are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than men (43%). This means that 3 in 5 women are either unemployed or underemployed.
Further observation shows the standout issues impacting youth unemployment and underemployment are largely linked to more people entering the labour market than the number of jobs being created at any point in time. For instance, in 2018, Nigeria only created about 450,000 new jobs while over 5 million people joined the labour force. This led to an increase in the number of the unemployed by 4.9 million people in the same year. Not to mention a widening gap of hard and soft skills, where the skills of the labour force fail to match the requirements of employers.
Article was first posted by www.techpoint.africa
