Rural Transformation and Labor Market Outcomes among Rural Youths in Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, unemployment in rural areas translates to economic problems, such as high levels of rural–urban migration. Interventions aimed at promoting rural transformation and development are designed to generate employment by promoting the growth of sectors such as manufacturing and services in rural areas. In this study, the General Household Survey (GHS) panel data for the post-planting and post-harvest periods of the 2011/2012 and 2015/2016 cropping seasons for Nigeria was used to investigate developments in rural areas in Nigeria between 2011 and 2015, and identified how these developments influenced labor market outcomes among rural youths. Fixed effect models were employed to control for unobserved heterogeneity that may exist because of the different years in the data used. Key levers of sustainable social and economic development, such as access to finance, health services, markets, and infrastructure such as electricity, were considered. The empirical results from the study revealed that being educated as well as having access to infrastructure and information had positive effects on the number of youths that took up wage/salary employment in the rural areas. The study concluded that the diversification of youths into other sectors would have higher growth effects on the development of rural areas, as they can invest more in agriculture, while also reducing the level of dependence on the sector. The study recommends an increase in budgetary allocations for education and rural development projects, with a special focus on electricity and financial institutions, while increasing access to information on available job opportunities.

Youths’ Participation in Livestock Agribusiness Entrepreneurship in Nigeria

“…The mean annual income of the respondents was 348,043.26 Naira. This indicated that the youths are low income earners and it has negative implication on their ability to invest in livestock production business (Rufai et al, 2021). More than half of the respondents (51.99%) had a livestock business experience of less than 10 years while 48.01% of the respondents had more than 10 years' experience in the livestock business.…”

Spatial–Temporal Differentiation and the Driving Mechanism of Rural Transformation Development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

“…Based on the connotation characteristics of rural transformation development, this paper refers to the research results of the rural transformation development evaluation index system. In this paper, the evaluation index system of the rural transformation development level of The Yangtze River Economic Belt was constructed from the dimension of "population-land-industry" [33,34] (Table 1). 1 Population development transformation.…”

Youths' Contribution to Household Welfare in Rural Areas

“…However, the extent to which youth contribute to households' welfare has gained little or no research attention despite a huge literature on rural youths (Adeyanju et al, 2021;Akrong & Kotu et al, 2022;Arslan et al, 2021a;Arslan et al, 2021a;Barsoum et al, 2017;Fasakin et al, 2022;Fawole et al, 2019;Ibrahim et al, 2021;Ng'atigwa et al, 2020;Osabohien et al, 2020;Osabohien et al, 2021;Rufai et al, 2021). Recent studies on rural households' welfare focus on the level of welfare (Donath et al, 2021;Delesalle, 2021).…”