Organisations involved in the recruitment of fresh graduates and experienced 
job seekers in the country are lamenting the declining rate of employment by
 corporate bodies.
Due to the poor state of the economy occasioned by the fall in oil prices and 
scarcity of foreign exchange for importation, many business organisations
 have stalled on fresh recruitment.
While expressing his concern about the declining rates of employment, 
the Co-Founder, Jobberman, Mr. Opeyemi Awoyemi, pointed out that the situation 
was a fallout of the slowdown in the economy.
“The rate of recruitment of fresh graduates has slowed down considerably this year
 and this is a knockout effect of the slowdown of the economy caused by low oil prices. 
This, we believe, will pick up towards the last quarter of the year,” he added.
The Managing Director, Dragnet Solutions Limited, Mr. Aret Bawa, observed that 
manufacturing companies that were known to recruit fresh graduates annually to 
support their production activities had not initiated employment processes this year.
Similarly, in the oil and gas sector, he said that the lull in oil trade had affected 
operators and none had approached his consultancy outfit for screening of potential
 recruits.
Though Bawa pointed out that there had been complaints of not getting people 
with the right skills available for recruitment, expectations concerning recruitment 
had not been
 forthcoming.
He said, “A lot of organisations just postponed the employment and they are 
doing more of conversion like converting their interns to full-time staff. Whether
 the economy has affected it or not, for us as a business, there are some companies 
that we expected to do recruitment but we didn’t get that.
“We have started seeing instances of conversion. Contract labourers, lift 
operators and help desk officers are being asked to take aptitude tests 
so that they can be considered for employment. We see that in the banking 
sector. In the banking sector, we have seen a lot of conversion but none has done
 full graduate recruitment.
“For the financial institutions, we have seen one or two graduate recruitment but not
 as much as expected; and in the oil and gas sector, nothing. In manufacturing, we 
have not seen anything.”
In the first three months of the year, statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics 
showed that the unemployment rate increased from 10.4 per cent to 12.1 
per cent, while underemployment rose from 18.7 per cent to 19.1 per cent.
However, the NBS stated that the country witnessed an increase in informal sector job 
creation, which outpaced the formal sector, forcing people to settle for less 
preferred underemployment.
In order for graduates to create a means of livelihood for themselves, Awoyemi 
urged the government to inculcate the ideals of entrepreneurship in members of 
the National Youth Service Corps so that they would be adequately equipped before
 the end of the one-year compulsory service of the nation.
“The ideals of entrepreneurship need to be ingrained into the corps members long 
before they arrive at the finishing point of NYSC camp. We believe that 
entrepreneurship ought to be taught from the university,” he stated.
Bawa urged business organisations to avoid nepotism as this would not allow for 
objectivity to thrive, saying that non-transparency in recruitment would hinder 
the growth of business.
A recruiter with Janchine Nigeria Limited, Mr. Adimorah Basil, explained that 
outsourcing firms were running out of business due to the increasing rate at 
which companies were laying off outsourced workers.
According to him, manufacturers are no longer running their production lines 
due to forex scarcity and lack of raw materials, and they have retrenched workers 
operating on such lines.