The energy sector, as well as tourism and hospitality, and ?public service and government have emerged as the sectors that are least considered when applying for jobs among job seekers in Nigeria.
The findings were disclosed by SBM Intelligence in its recent report titled: ‘Six Zones, One Crisis: What Nigerians say about jobs, skills and the risk of leaving.’
The report was based from a nationwide survey which surveyed 1,180 respondents across all six geopolitical zones, with findings suggesting that broader labor crisis cannot be solved with a single, sweeping policy, as regional realities dictate vastly different priorities.
The energy sector is at the very end of the spectrum with a mere 0.10 percent share of weighted urgency score, tourism and hospitality follows with 2.10 percent and public service and government sector with 1.90 percent.
On the other end of the spectrum, digital services (14.40 percent) and agriculture (13.20 percent) are the leading sectors capturing interest among job seekers.
Analysts perceive that despite its critical role in national infrastructure, the energy sector is viewed by job seekers as virtually non-absorbent for immediate, broad-based employment, as well as being intensely competitive.The tourism and hospitality sector in Nigeria remains heavily underdeveloped and sidelined by broader security and economic pressures. In the same vein, the public sector is no longer seen as a viable engine for mass job creation.
The report highlights the paradox in the labour market, noting,
?’Nigerians know what they want from the labour market. The problem is getting it. Technology and agriculture lead the national rankings, two sectors that could not be more different in what they require. One demands digital infrastructure and educated workers. The other demands security and capital. The gap between what people need and what the economy provides defines the crisis.’
Labour market situation across regions
The findings reveals the structural barriers to employment across these regions:
Northwest and Northeast: Heavily driven by agriculture, with the Northwest posting the highest demand for farming and agro-processing at 22.6 percent.
Here, the labor market is constrained by a severe skills deficit (26.8 percent), while youth unemployment is driven by job rejection and wage disconnect (25.4 percent). The Northeast faces a similar skills shortage (22.9 percent), but its youth crisis is primarily fueled by forced migration (26.6 percent).
South-South and Southeast: Focused on industrial revival and basic human needs, with manufacturing leading in the South-South (15.7 percent) and healthcare dominating in the Southeast (17.8 percent). Meanwhile, these southern regions face distinct pressures, as low pay and depressed wages dominate in both the Southeast (24.8 percent) and South-South (21.1 percent).
However, youth unemployment in the former leads to forced migration (34.1 percent), whereas in the latter it is driven by systemic discrimination (33.0 percent).
Southwest: Primarily technology-driven, with the sector leading at 16.6 percent. The region is bottlenecked by poor infrastructure (21.0 percent), with youth unemployment largely reflecting job rejection and quality mismatches (25.3 percent).
North-Central: Driven by key economic sectors where demand stands at 18.1 percent. In this zone, a lack of access to credit (23.3 percent) acts as the main barrier to enterprise, alongside an acute vocational skills shortage (46.2 percent) that hinders young workers.
The report clearly explains that the regional breakdown measures the dysfunction in the region and not just demand, noting, ‘The Northwest and Northeast are agriculture-first zones. The South-South wants manufacturing. The Southeast wants healthcare. The Southwest and Northcentral want technology. These are not arbitrary preferences. They reflect each zone’s productive base, its deficits, and its aspirations’.
‘When a region asks for healthcare, it is saying the hospitals are empty. When it asks for manufacturing, it is saying the factories have closed’.