Nigeria’s youth employment challenge is increasingly exposing a gap between what the education system produces and what the labour market demands, raising questions about how effectively schools, industries and government employment policies could collaborate to address relevant challenges, GLORIA NWAFOR reports.

The unemployment challenge goes beyond the number of young people without jobs. For many graduates and other young entrants to the labour market, the difficulty lies in moving from education and training into stable, productive employment. Weak school-to-work pathways, limited industry participation in skills development and a mismatch between academic curricula and workplace requirements continue to leave many young people struggling to convert qualifications into employment opportunities.

The concern has gained fresh attention following the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the Future, which reported that global youth unemployment rose to 12.4 per cent in 2025, representing about 67 million people aged 15 to 24. The report also found that one in five young people globally was not in employment, education or training.

For Nigeria, the figures present a more complex picture. While the country’s headline youth unemployment rate is comparatively lower, the dominance of informal employment points to a deeper problem of job quality, skills utilisation and career progression.

The report also found that the proportion of young people not in employment, education or training increased slightly to 20 per cent, affecting more than 257 million young people globally.

According to the organisation, youth unemployment increased between 2023 and 2025 in eight of the world’s 11 subregions, indicating a reversal of the improvement recorded after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The development is particularly significant for developing economies such as Nigeria, where the challenge is not only unemployment but also the availability of decent, productive and adequately protected jobs for young people.

The figures suggest that the central policy question is no longer simply how to get young Nigerians into jobs, but how to build a system that connects education and skills development to actual labour-market opportunities. This requires closer coordination among educational institutions, employers and government agencies so that training programmes respond to the skills industries need and young people have clearer pathways from learning to employment.

Adding another layer to the challenge is also a warning from the global organisation that technological transformation, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), is likely to affect some of the occupations traditionally used by young people as entry points into the labour market.

It estimated that 6.1 per cent of jobs held by young people aged 15 to 29 are in occupations highly exposed to AI-related changes.

It stated that many of these jobs overlap with middle-skilled occupations that have declined in number among young workers since 2023, particularly clerical and administrative roles.

Following the threat, this is just as a new survey from Gallup on AI’s effect on workplace culture said the technological adoption is pushing organisational cultures in equally positive and negative directions on average, with managers playing a decisive role in how technology-related changes are perceived by employees.

The survey showed that AI adoption is reshaping organisational culture, with 24 per cent of employees saying their culture has improved and another 25 per cent saying it has worsened.

Nigeria’s labour market data shows a somewhat different picture on headline unemployment, underscoring the importance of looking beyond the unemployment rate when assessing the country’s youth employment challenge.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its Q2 2024 Nigeria Labour Force Survey, put unemployment among young people aged 15 to 24 at 6.5 per cent, while the youth NEET rate stood at 12.5 per cent. The survey also showed that informal employment accounted for 93 per cent of employment.

This suggests that for many Nigerian youths, the challenge extends beyond whether they have a job to whether the job provides adequate income, stability, social protection and a pathway for career progression.

According to the Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, the ILO report reflects the reality confronting many countries, particularly those in Africa.

He said addressing the challenge does not require a “rocket science” solution, but deliberate policy choices focused on creating an environment where businesses can survive, expand and create jobs.

Oyerinde stressed the need for governments at all levels to facilitate a hospitable business environment, warning that businesses must be regulated to prosper rather than be driven to extinction.

“Without business sustainability, there cannot be job creation,” he said.

He also called for a deliberate review of Nigeria’s academic curriculum to align it with current workplace realities and industry requirements, noting that this would ease the transition of graduates from school into the labour market.

Oyerinde further advocated increased investment in artificial intelligence education, saying the rapid spread of AI leaves individuals and businesses with limited options but to develop the skills required to remain relevant in the changing world of work.

For a Policy Analyst, Lekan Olayiwola said to tackle youth unemployment, Nigeria must fix the education-to-work gap by strengthening the link between education, skills development and employment.

Olayiwola said the problem should not be treated simply as a lack of education, but as a weak transition from learning to decent work.

He called for stronger school-to-work pathways through apprenticeships, internships, career guidance and industry-linked curricula, with employers playing a greater role in shaping training programmes.

“The priority should be to treat the transition from education to work as a policy system, rather than assuming that education automatically produces employability,” he said.

Olayiwola also urged a shift from certificate-based training to demonstrable competencies, particularly in technical, digital, vocational and entrepreneurial skills, linked to recognised qualifications and actual job opportunities.

He stressed that job creation should also focus on employment quality, saying young people moving into insecure and poorly paid work should not automatically be regarded as having achieved a successful labour-market transition.

He further called for policies that would help young workers adapt to artificial intelligence through digital literacy and continuous reskilling, rather than treating AI only as a threat to employment.

According to him, programmes such as the Federal Government’s 3MTT initiative would have greater impact if more deliberately connected to employers, apprenticeships and enterprise development.

He said education, industrial and labour policies must also be better coordinated.

“We cannot keep producing graduates under one system, creating jobs under another and developing skills under a third,” he said.

Olayiwola said the goal should be a clear pathway from learning to productive employment, decent work and career progression.

At the same time, the ILO noted that demand continues to increase for some knowledge-based technical occupations, including those in science, health and engineering.

For Nigeria, the development reinforces the need to align education, vocational training and youth employment programmes with changing labour-market requirements, rather than simply expanding the number of young people entering the workforce.

“There is increasing noise around AI,” ILO Director of the Employment, Skills and Sustainable Enterprises Department, Sukti Dasgupta, said, warning that countries should not underestimate the risks associated with technological change.

She called for increased investment in skills, lifelong learning and social protection to enable young people to adapt to changes in the world of work.

The ILO said technological progress, including AI, should ultimately create opportunities for young people rather than deepen existing inequalities.

It therefore called on governments to adopt a human-centred approach to AI governance, invest in quality education, lifelong learning and apprenticeships, and strengthen employment services and labour-market institutions.

The organisation also urged policymakers to pay particular attention to young women and vulnerable young people, while expanding social protection and rights at work.

Beyond skills, the ILO stressed that governments must create conditions for more decent jobs through supportive macroeconomic and sectoral policies.

For Nigeria, where a large share of workers operate informally, the report’s emphasis on decent work is particularly relevant. The country’s Q2 2024 labour-force survey showed that informal employment remained dominant at 93 per cent.

The ILO’s warning therefore goes beyond the need to reduce unemployment figures. It highlights the need for policies that can move young people from education into productive employment and from precarious work into jobs that provide security, dignity and opportunities for advancement.

The report noted that the central challenge for policymakers is not simply to create more jobs for young people, but to ensure that those jobs provide a secure and meaningful transition into adulthood.

For Nigeria, therefore, tackling youth employment requires more than expanding access to education or creating isolated skills programmes. It calls for a coordinated approach that links curricula, vocational training, apprenticeships, internships, industrial policy and employment services to create a clearer route from the classroom to productive work.