THE ROLE OF MANUFACTURING SECTOR AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Part one

The engine of an economy, is the industrial sector and the welfare of the nation is determined by its well being and a good measure of capacity building in every clime.Ibikunle laniyan the blogger observes the sector and general contribution in an economy. ... 

All over the world the real sector plays a crucial role in economic development basically the provision of mass employment and improvement of the  standard of living of the citizenry in general .In an ideal situation ,this role is best undertaken by  both local and foreign institutions and especially by both the public sector and the private sector in a mixed economic model as popularly practiced in this modern society  .Depending on the nature  of  development planning ,   policy and policy process respectively ,can be more effective unlike in the free market economy  in which the private sector is  shallow and dominant .

The multi-pronged approaches at job creation ,is a vital resource to tackle unemployment  crisis and can accelerate not just  proportion or quantity but also  the quality of jobs being created  as both formal sector and private sector compete in the vastly limited macroeconomic space .  The attainment of the ideals of flat earth theory of job creation which states the capability of the government to expand mass employment is more than possible only in this way or can be achieved  or even exceeded  However the application of this approach and especially the mixed economic model globally by its envisaged  strategic impact often leaves much to be desired .

Generally ,in economy , unemployment is an important statistical measure used to determine the health and wealth of an economy  at a particular period.It is one of the principal  macroeconomic indicators  of economic growth and sustainable economic development .6 percent  unemployment  inflation   or more is considered too low .Unfortunately o ver theb leads to this

The bureau of labour statistics  defined unemployment in an economy as a given proportion of active labour redundancies every four weeks and also include those currently out of job even though they are willing  to work . It also includes  those temporarily laid off in anticipation of recall back to work are included in the general unemployment statistics.

Government over the world often use this slogan or hard data to determine the direction of the economy proffering ways to revamp equally down ward economic indicators dubbed  as unethical behavior over the past 25 pears old or that more successive government   since 1999 had failed massively  to turn the apple cart of this burden and no deliberate steps  had been taken to address this scourge .Reliable statistics is hard to come by and reliable unemployment hardly exist either in this country which distorted planning .Hence we are forced to make do distorted facts for a distorted growth as official statistics and the institutions and people that use are hugely  divorced from reality .The national bureau of statistics in the first half of 2011 put the figure at 23.9 percent  a surge from 21.1 percent recorded in 2010 .So the figure rose from over 12 million people in 2010 to more than 14 million in 2011 growing by 1.8 million between December 2010 and June 2011.

Going back into history lane , according to Central Bank of Nigeria -2003 ,in 1970 national unemployment figure rose from  4.3 percent to 6.4 percent in 1980 .The latter was attributed to the then depression of the Nigerian economy that set in late 70s .Consequently this economic downturns led to introduction and adoption of austerity programmes and stabilization measures which included

Export restriction and acceleration of importation dependent syndrome of most manufacturing concerns  in the country where only few factories survived .Why did government also placed on embargo on employment during the period ? The federal civil service was totally humiliated with total disengagements . This rose to 6,294 in 1984 from mere 2,724 in 1980 –Odusola 2001].This led to flunctuation of national unemployment rate from 6 percent until it reached 7 percent in 1987 .The adoption of SAP in 1986 also aggravated the economic climate with serious implication on national unemployment growth .The reduction of the figure to as low as 1.8 percent in 1995  is debatable even though it rose to 3.4 percent in 1996 and hovered between 3.4 to 4.7 percent between 1996 to 2000.-Douglaston et al ,2006 ].

It is becoming clearer  that the unemployment situation in the country is not getting better  inspite of less than two million jobs being created by FGN per annum .80 percent of Nigerian youths are jobless  roaming the streets aimlessly in a country in which 70 percent of the population are youths .That is a calamity . Several reports stated that the national unemployment rate stood at 24 percent and such situation could be a lot worse in a country that lacked full functioning of the robust social security  system  or social safety nets or welfare  or unemployment benefits  to take care of labour redundancies . And each day strategic means of livelihood unceasingly plummets .Job creation in the country has not gone beyond scratching the surface in an economy in which labour market  according to world bank  is  growing by between 4.5 to 5million per annum unlike 3 per cent annum recorded in 2002 according to international  labour  organization –ILO.The national bureau of statistics noted that in the first half of 2014  about  500, 224 jobs were created .This  year-2014  is definitely going to  be  a lot worse than the previous year 2013 which recorded 1.6 million jobs .