Can you guess the number of unemployed people in Nigeria?

The Nigerian National Bureau of statistics released a report in the third quarter of 2018 (Q3 2018) that revealed 90.5 million Nigerian unemployed.
Can you count how many times you have responded to an interview invite and still did not get close to getting a job in Nigeria? Well, you are not alone.

As the rate of unemployment gradually increases in Nigeria, job-seekers face more competition searching for jobs. Now the big question here is how do job-seekers find jobs in Nigeria’s tight and competitive job market?
I was a part of a survey that was carried out by MyJobMag, and we surveyed over 3,700 job-seekers in Nigeria (that are passively and actively searching for a job) to learn more about their experiences in a job market that doesn’t favor them.

And guess what we found out:
• Most job-seekers in Nigeria use social media to search for jobs
• A good number of Nigerians are unemployed
• Networking is one of the most effective ways to land a job in Nigeria
• Getting the right qualification is a step to getting employed in Nigeria
• The institution you graduate from has little to do with your employment status
• People in industries like; education, NGO’s, banking, ICT and healthcare are more likely to get employed faster.

See how job-seekers search for jobs in Nigeria:
Have you thought of “you” being responsible for your unemployment? Well, maybe not. Technological advancement has changed the way people search for jobs now.

A survey by LinkedIn shows that 39% of job –seekers use social media as their number 1 job-search tool. The survey also shows that 75% of hiring managers report looking at LinkedIn profiles to learn about a candidate’s background.

Looking at the survey, we discovered that 74.8% of job-seekers search for jobs online (through social media, job boards, company career sites, and niche job boards).

This means that the traditional job-search medium like newspapers and posters are gradually going on extinction.
From the survey, it is quite obvious that online tools are the most effective and popular job-search tools that can help you land a job in Nigeria. So, if you are still searching for jobs on newspapers and posters, then maybe you are responsible for your employment delays.

Looking at the data above, it is obvious that social media is the next big thing when it comes to job-search and talent hunting.

Why 90. 5 million Nigerians are unemployed
The numbers are overwhelming, but the question is why are so many people in Nigeria unemployed? We surveyed over 1, 500 employed Nigerians to find out why they are employed. 61.19% revealed that they are employed because they are qualified.
From the data, we were able to find out that some Nigerians are unemployed because they are not qualified. Do unemployed Nigerians think they are not employed because they are not qualified? Maybe not.
We surveyed over 2000 unemployed job-seekers to understand the reason they think they are yet to get a job in Nigeria, see what we found out;

• We found out that 33.2% of unemployed job-seekers think they are unemployed because they don’t have connections.
• 24. 9% feel that they are unemployed because there are too many applicants.
• Only 4.5% of job-seekers are unemployed because they are not qualified.

Average first monthly salary of an employed nigerian
Have you wondered how much you will end up earning when you finally become employed in Nigeria?
Based on our survey, we discovered that the average first monthly salary an employed Nigerian Graduate will likely earn is N47, 223.
We understand that you may wish to know your worth by discovering how much you stand to earn at the end of the month when you finally secure a job in Nigeria.

To help with this information, we carried out a survey on employed people in Nigeria to discover how much they earn as their first salary.
It is possible for you to earn more than N47, 223 depending on your experience, qualification, skills, and industries.

Least Used Job-Search Tools in Nigeria
Based on our survey, we have noticed that there are some job search tools that are least used by job-seekers in Nigeria. Looking at the environment that we live in as Nigerians and the recent technological trends, there are some job-search tools that may likely not work well here.
Based on the survey that we carried out, we noticed that very few employed Nigerians got their jobs through newspapers and niche job boards. So what does this means?

It means that these 2 job-search tools below are not very effective in Nigeria. Want to know why?

1. Newspaper: From the recent trends in technological advancement and the coming of the internet, there has been a great reduction in the number of people that depend on the traditional press for the dissemination of information.

Based on our survey, only 3.637% of employed Nigerians got their jobs through newspapers. This means that searching for jobs in newspapers is a practice that is gradually going on extinction.

So if you are depending on newspapers to get a job in Nigeria you may likely be missing out on some great stuff.

2. Niche Job boards: From our research, only 1.29% of employed Nigerians got their jobs through niche job boards. It is obvious that niche job boards are not so popular in Nigeria, and as such very few people use them.
So, if you are looking forward to getting a job through a niche job board in Nigeria, then you may consider losing out on some opportunities.
Looking at the job market and the information from the survey, we are quite aware of the fact that the rate of unemployment in Nigeria is pretty high, but the question here is what can we do about it?

To get and make the few jobs accessible, hiring managers and job-seekers alike are to discover the job-search medium that works, how it works and to better make good use of it.

I hope you found this information useful as a job-seeker in Nigeria. You can click here to see full survey report. Don’t forget to drop your comment if you do disagree with any fact stated above.