ABSTRACT

Unemployment is a situation in which an individual is looking for job but cannot find one either in private or public sectors of the economy. Based on this, the research was conducted to investigate the determinant effect of unemployment on economic growth in Nigeria, from the periods of 1981 through 2014. Using ordinary least square for analysis, other tests were carried out such as unit root test, error correction test, heteroskdasticity test, serial correlation etc. the researcher also looked at the types of unemployment in Nigeria, some of which include underemployment, disguised unemployment etc. the researcher also focuses his attention on reviewing related literatures and theory particularly Keynesian theory of unemployment. The major findings was that unemployment has a negative impact on the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Nigeria economy and that entrepreneurship education policy of the government has a positive and significant effect to the growth rate of Nigeria gross domestic product. Some suggestions and policy recommendations were made based on the findings.