Abstract

This research investigates the effect of population growth on unemployment in Nigeria between 1980-2016 through the application of Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique Augmented Dickey-Fuller test was employed to test the presence of unit root in the series; The relationship between unemployment on one hand and population growth, mortality rate and poverty among other variables was explored. The results reveal that an increase in population growth and poverty brings about an increase in unemployment while a decrease in mortality rate also result in an increase in unemployment. The study also revealed that the independent variables account for about 98% of the variation in the dependent variable. The hypotheses further show that population growth, mortality rate and poverty are statistically insignificant at a significance level of 0.05.From the correlation analysis it can concluded that there is serial correlation amongst the residuals of the regression estimates from 1980 to 2016 in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended that infrastructures that will provide employment to thousands or millions of people such as good roads, electricity, provision of portable drinking water etc. should be embarked upon by the government of the day in order to reduce the high level of unemployment in Nigeria