CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDYThis chapter provides a broad overview of the employmentsituation in graduate s which is a major concern of governmentand their social partner throughout the region. Theapproach israther general and highlights major issues concerningemployment problems and prospects in the region. Because ofdata limitation, it does not attempt a comprehensive andquantitative analysis of the employment situation. it brings withan examination of the employment problems, includingbackground information on its origin and trends, and then looksat the nature and underlying causes of contemporaryunemployment. Unemployment of a large portion of the laborforce is a central problem now in almost all the underdevelopedcountries.The phenomenon of chronic unemployment has become themajor concern of successive Nigerian government. The9phenomenon of joblessness creates much concern for theindividual Nigerians. According to the 1966 – 67 manpowersurveys in Nigeria, the proportion of the labour force in Nigerianot working is 1 – 7 percent, which means that nearly two ofevery one hundred member of the potential labor areunemployed.Unemployment has thus reached such an alarming situationtoday that is perhaps considered the most serious of the problemaffecting Nigeria and one that is steadily worsening as the gapbetween the rapid rising member pressing for work and the newemployment opportunities being created widens.In the underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria howeveremployment benefits are not available to the unemployed. theincome level of the great majority of families makes the provisionof unemployment benefits virtually impossible thus those unableto find jobs or these discharged from their previous employmentsre left to fend for themselves. in under developed countriesmajority of job seekers are therefore forced to create10employment for themselves particularly in the rural agriculturalsectors where they force disguised unemployment. in the contextof this study both those who are disguised unemployment. in thecontext of this study both those who are disguisedly unemployedand those who are openly unemployed are lumped together asthe unemployed.thus unemployment is define briefly as the negative aspect of theeconomic process for an unemployed person is one who despitehis willingness and capacity to work is unable to do so for reasonsinherent in the organization of the commodity production.1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PPROBLEMSUnemployment rates are particularly high among graduate andespecially among school leaves, giving rise increasingly to theproblems of “educated unemployment”. paradoxically, graduateunemployment seems to be correlated with levels of educationattained in some cases. This is particularly true for school leaversin, for example, Nigeria where the proportion of the unemployedwith secondary education increased from 24 to 51 percentbetween 1974 and 1985. graduate employment rates areprobably 3 – 4 times higher than those of older workers, and inmany countries in the region open unemployment amonggraduate as a group in the labour could be as 40 – 50 percent.Moreover, graduate s and new entrants to the labour force are aswell placed as experienced workers to find employment in newopportunities or to go into self employment. The problems ofgraduate unemployment reflect the contraction of jobs in themodern sector and declining rate of job creation in that sector. Italso suggests serious labour market distortions related to thedevelopment and utilization of human resources in the contextof changing economic circumstances. further, the problem ofgraduate unemployment is linked to the fact of many Africancountries, as already noted, continue to record relatively highrates of population growth, and the population structure of someof those countries is overwhelmingly young will children of schoolgoing age accounting for as much as half of the total populationin some cases.1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDYUnemployment has become a current and a current universalproblem in Nigeria. The impact presently has been felt by 80% ofNigerian’s families. The efforts of our government to curb it areinadequate or misdirected, so positive results are not yet in sight.Unemployment has brought hardship and object poverty to manyfamilies. The level of adult dependency has increased, so the rateof saving in our economy is declining. The problem has also led toincrease in crime waves and rates. All these could spell doom forthe nation. It is deemed fit to embark on this study as acontribution towards the eradication of the problems ofunemployment and its accompanying problems and hardship tothe individual and in general.Our primary motive of carrying out this study were born of thedesire to contribute in any meaningful way the idea of how theglowing rate of unemployment in Nigeria can be dealt with inorder to reduce its social and other consequences especially onour leaders of tomorrow to at least a minimum.