Assessment of Youth Unemployment Impact on the Socio-Economic Development of Ondo State: A Study of Akure South Local Government Area

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INTRODUCTION
Generally speaking, unemployment is one of the fundamental development challenges facing Nigeria at the moment. The available reports from various local and international bodies and the glaring evidence of joblessness in the country are clear indications that there was no time in Nigeria's cheered history where unemployment is as serious as now governments at all levels had made efforts at one time or the other to reduce unemployment in Nigeria. For instance, the Federal Government created Directorate of Employment (NDE) and its skill acquisition programmers and various job creation mechanisms like National Empowerment for Economic Development (NEED), Subsidy Reinvestment Programmed (SURE-P), Youth with Innovation (YOUWIN), N-Power and Trader money among others. In Ondo State, the recently established Ondo State Entrepreneurship Agency (ONSEA) and there positioning of its Micro-Credit Agency are all aimed at ensuring economic growth and increasing employment opportunities for the citizens. All these approaches have not yielded tangible results to curb the alarming rise of unemployment in Ondo state and in the country at large. According to the latest reports of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) unemployment among young Nigerians within the age bracket of 15-34 years is the highest in the country with 21.72 million or 72.5 percent of the 29.94 million young unemployed Nigerians. The reports further stated that one in three Nigerians able and willing to work had no jobs in the fourth quarter of 2020.Inthe second quarter of 2020, the unemployment rate was 27.1 percent amidst Nigeria's lingering economic crises that was made worse by coronavirus pandemic. This rate jumped to 33.3 percent, translating to some 23.2 million unemployed. The highest in the last 13 years and the second-high estate in the world.

Statement of the Problem
The level of unemployment in Nigeria has grown so large that it cannot be addressed by mere words of mouths. It requires the combined efforts of both individuals and the government at all levels to formulate lasting solutions to it. Unemployment in Nigeria has affected the teeming population of the youths and the economic development of the country. It is obvious that unemployment especially among the graduates impedes Nigeria progress in several ways. Apart from the economic waste it brought to the nation, it is also responsible for political unrest in crime and other social vices experienced in our society in recent time (Ezie 2012) among others. In Nigeria, plethora of factors is also responsible for the alarming status of joblessness among its active population. Corruption has done incalculable damage to every facts of the country Nigeria. It has undermined democratic institutions retarded economic growth and development (Samuel 2011). In fact corruption has caused poverty in the midst of plenty. This paper is determined to address some of these challenges.

Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study is to assess unemployment on the socio-economic development of Ondo State using unemployed youths in some selected communities in Akure South Local Government Area as a study. The specific objectives are to achieve the following: 1. To examine the rate of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area 2. To examine the causes of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area 3. To examine the effects of youth unemployment on socio-economic development in Akure South Local Government Area 4. To ascertain the level of effectiveness of government effort in combating youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area

Research Questions
This study sought answers to the following research questions.
1. What is the rate of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area?
2. What are the causes of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area?
3. What are the Socio-economic effects of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area? 4. What is the level of effectiveness of governments efforts in conbating youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area.

LITERATURE REVIEW Unemployment
There seems to be a consensus on the definitions and usage of the concept, unemployment. According to Udu and Agu (2015), unemployment is "a situation in which persons capable and willing to work are unable to find suitable paid employment". As defined by International Labour Organization (2007), unemployed works are those who are currently not working but are willing and able to work for pay, currently available to work and have actively search for work. Hornby (2010) defines unemployment as "the fact of a number of people not having a job; the number of people without a job; the state of not having a job". In the same vein, an operational definition of unemployment for this work will include the underemployed, hence unemployment occurs when people who are able and willing to work are without jobs, or cannot find work that is effective and productive to do. It also occurs when people undertake jobs that are contrary or lower that their academic qualifications or areas of specialization.

Types of Unemployment in Nigeria
Economists have distinguished between the various overlapping types (or causes) of unemployment. Some types of unemployment in Nigeria are explained below:

Seasonal Unemployment
According to Udu and Agu (2015) Seasonal unemployment occurs mostly in industrial sector, and in the enterprise that are seasonal in nature. Such activities engage labour temporarily during peak periods. For example, during the rainy season, many men who are engaged in fishing are building may go out of work during bad weather.

Structural Unemployment
This occurs when a labour market is unable to provide jobs for everyone who wants one, because there is a mismatch between the skill of the unemployed workers and the skill needed for the available jobs (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2011). Structural unemployment could also results from persistent cyclical unemployment that is, if the economy suffers from long-term low aggregate demand and in the techniques of the industry, unemployment could occur (Udu and Agu, 2005;Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2011;and Harold, 2009).

Frictional Unemployment
There seems to be divergence on the meaning and causes of frictional unemployment. For example, Udu and Agu (2015) asserted that, there is frictional unemployment when certain occupations have surplus workers in one part of the country, while vacancies for similar jobs occur and are not filled in others parts of the country. To them, immobility of labour and imperfect knowledge of the existence of opportunities elsewhere are the main cause of frictional unemployment. Udu and Agu (2005) refer to this as normal unemployment, because it is short duration. It does not harm the economy. In construction industries or contract jobs which rely heavily on manual labour, workers are temporarily laid off at the end of major assignments. Such workers are reengaged when other jobs becomes available. Others may drift to other ongoing projects.

Classical Unemployment
This occurs when real wages for a job are set above the market-clearing level, causing the number of job-seekers to exceed the number of vacancies. Most economists have argued that unemployment increases the more the government intervenes into economy to try to improve the condition of those with jobs. For example, minimum wage laws raise the cost of labour with few skills to be above the market equilibrium, resulting in people who wish to work at the ongoing rate but cannot as the wage enforced is greater than their values as workers becoming unemployed. Furthermore, laws restricting lay-offs made business less likely to hire in the first place, as hiring becomes more risky, leaving many young people unemployed and unable to find work. For instance, Nigeria, before the recent recruitment exercise in some ministries and parastatals (e.g Ministry of Interior), there was embargo placed on employment for decades (Agbaegbu, 2011), meanwhile, the condition of service has been remarkably improving.

Theoretical Framework
There are many divergent theoretical debates among the economists and theorists regarding the issue of unemployment. However, the two prominent schools of thoughts will be applied in this research work to discuss the multidimensional situation of unemployment in Nigeria. These are Keynesian Economic Theory of unemployment) and the Marxist Theory of unemployment.

The Keynesian Unemployment Theory
This theory is also called the cyclical or deficient-demand unemployment. The cyclical or Keynesian economists hold the view the unemployment occurs when there is not enough aggregate demand in the economy to provide jobs for everyone who wants to work. According to these economists "when demand for most goods and service falls, less production is needed and consequently fewer workers are needed, wages are stick and do not fall to meet the equilibrium level, and mass unemployment results (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2013).

Marxist Theory of Unemployment
This theory was developed by Karl Marx in 1863. From his theory of Surplus Value comes the citation below: "It is the very nature of the capitalist mode of production over work some workers while keeping their starve serve army of unemployed paupers" (Karl Mark, 1863) Source: (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2011) Maxist model explains the causes and effect of unemployment in the global economy in the mid-century. To Weber, unemployment is caused by many factors in a modern economy. It can be caused by rapid technological change, business cycle or recessions, seasonal factors in some industries particularly such as changes in tastes and climatic conditions which affects them and demand for certain products and services. Industrial perceptions and willingness to work and attitudes towards some jobs and about employers accessibility for refraining and acquisition of work skills, after the training even though they have a change to get job, discrimination in the work place based on race, colour, religion, ethnicity, age and class. Similarly, according to Weber, unemployment is caused by primarily by the social factors rather than by the individual factors. However, the present day Nigeria seems to be taking a leap at mixed economic system due to low impact of socialism to bring about real economic growth and development. Developing countries of which Nigeria is one, are calling on both the government and private sectors to cooperate and develop the country's economy. Recently, the government is adopting the public-private partnership initiative in achieving and accelerating some development objectives. Pivoting the economy cannot be left in the hand of the private sector only. There is the need for the government to participate fully. Asaju and Albert (2013) had strongly posited that full participation of government in running the economy through its fiscal policy will ameliorate Nigeria's numerous economic challenges especially poverty, unemployment and corruption. Nigeria seems to be one of the worst hit. For instance, while many government parastatals and agencies lay embargo on employment in the last two decades, within the same period, governmental reforms disengaged about 121,731 workers from the public service between 2006 and 2007. During first phase of the rightsizing process of the 2005 public service reform, about 30,000 officers of the core civil service were disengaged from service. (Adegoroye, 2006). The banking industry also suffered adverse effects of the financial crisis. Some banks in the sector massively 'swept out' their work force in a bid to remain in business and this has drastically increased the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. More so, some intervention programme introduced in Nigeria such as the Nigerian Directorate of Employment (NDE) with the goal of designing and implementing programmes to combat mass unemployment, Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAPs), Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), YOUWIN programme, N-power etc, and subsequent injection of billions of naira into these programme and other sectors to create more employment opportunities as claimed by the Federal Government can be seen as a leap into the Keynesian theory.

Factors Responsible for the Rising Unemployment in Nigeria
The high unemployment situation in Nigeria is real. Even the governments (at all levels) have severally admitted to this fact at different fora. Nigeria is rich. It has every potential to develop and put poverty and unemployment issue into history. But the paradox now is that Nigerians still wallow in poverty as unemployment rate keep rising at alarming rate due to some factors discuss below;

Corruption
Corruption is not a strange word to an average Nigerian, simply put, it is a dishonest or illegal behavior, especially of people in authority. It is an abuse of public office for private gain which usually involves embezzlement of public funds, nepotism and falsification of facts and figures, etc Corruption has no doubt done incalculable damage to every facets of the country Nigeria. It has undermined democratic institutions, retarded economic growth and development (Samuel, 2011); and caused poverty in the mist of plenty, it has prevented the country from making political, social and progress and ultimately brought about high level of mass unemployment in the country. It has denied millions of Nigerians access to education, housing, health, food and infrastructure;

Neglect of Agricultural Sector
Until early 1970s, agriculture remained the mainstay of Nigeria economy. It constituted major income earning for the country and the largest employer of labour as over 90 percent of the populace worked and earn their daily income from this sector. Following the rise in the price of petroleum (oil boom) in 1970s, and the attendance huge foreign income, the agricultural sector suffered a substantial declined till today. The huge finances from the oil sector have brought about the growth of public and private enterprises which are concentrated in the urban centres. This later resulted in rural-urban migration in which able body men who were farmers left their farm land to pick up menial jobs in the urban centers which are scarce and inconsistence. Corporate Nigeria (2007) puts the country's labour force statistics as follows: 70 percent in agricultural sector, while 10 percent are in the industry and 20 percent work in the service. Many analysts have argued that there is a strong relationship between the neglect of agricultural sector and high rate of employment in the country. Agriculture remains a panacea for reducing the high rate of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. The monopolistic nature (over reliance on oil) of the economy remains a contradiction.

Infrastructural Decay
This is yet another dismal factor that has rendered millions of Nigerians unemployed. Haris Dafaranos, a former Greek Ambassador to Nigeria is one of the many who believed that if the infrastructure is improved and empowered policies are put in place, people will have opportunity to employment and use their talent in sectors like textile which is capable of absorbing both skilled and semi-skilled workers (Abbah,2009). No doubt that the inability of successive administration to tackle the problem in power sector has done an incalculable harm to all facets of the economy especially the manufacturing enterprises in the country. Currently, there are barely 200 operators in the real sectors of the economy. For example, Dunlop Nigeria Plc which was a dominant manufacturing company followed suit. The surviving Am. J. Soc. Dev. Entrep. 2(2) 37-49, 2023 textile mill in Kaduna, the United Textile Mile (UNT) Plc has been shut down for long.

Lack of Purposeful Leadership and Good Governance
There is a general agreement among political observes of Nigeria politics especially in recent times that the nation has never been lacking in terms of initiating good ideas towards enhancing the welfare of the citizens, what was lacking is that of political will to turn their ideas into concrete results. Asaju (2010) affirms that "hardly had any admini9stration come on board without a virgin plan professional packaged to ease the agonizing pains of the masses, although these plans which come with great expectations found to be more active on papers"/. Successive administrations' efforts to combat the menace of unemployment and its attendant effects over the years ended up in a deadlock and the reason is not far from corruption, lack of political-will to implement government projects, lack of good governance etc which also aggravates political instability.

Unfavourable Government Policies
If the nation's social and economic systems are malfunctioning, it calls for reformation. But when economic reform is devoid of human face, the citizen's welfare will be jeopardized. For example, the public sector reform embarked upon by the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo saw the disengagement of 121,731 workers from the Federal Public Service between 2006 and 2007. More so, it was disclosed that a total of 48,037 offices were severed from the civil service in the first year of Late President Yar'adu's administration 2008 (OSGF, 2008). The reform also hit the banking sector with massive retrenchment of workers; the oil industry was not left out, NNPC alone pruned its work force 17,000 down to just 9,000. One may ask whether reform paradoxically mean increasing unemployment and wide spread poverty. The reform in Obasanjo's own words will have to wear a 'human face' if they are to gain widespread acceptance (Jason,2007).

Unfavourable Terms and Conditions Placed on Jobs Recruitment
There is no doubt that years of experience bring about efficiency and productivity However, the issue of stretching years of experience and age limit by the age employers as criterion for employment has narrowed chances for employment. Similarly, the presence of over-aged workers, those are due for retirement but (for the fear of the socioeconomic insecurity in the country), refused to retire, has left no opening for fresher to come in. A study carried out by the Bureau of Public Service Reform indicates that succession potential into the Civil Service on the basis of age profile is very low. Using 25 year as the optimum age of basic degree graduate into the Civil Service on GL.08 and a maximum 35 years in service to attain age of compulsory retirement age of 60 years; and the FCSC prescribed promotion eligibility, grade level stay of 3year between GL.08 and 15 and 4 years between Gl. 15-17, the study shows that 91.5% of the officers were found to be over aged for their grade levels and position occupied. Thus the succession potential was less that 20% in all cases. (Adegoroye, 2006). The above findings have a great implication for employment opportunities, especially for the youths who are more vibrant and energetic.

Defective Educational System
Most people blamed the falling standard of education in the country for the rising unemployment in Nigeria. It has been argued that many universities and other tertiary institution shun out half-baked product in their thousands who are highly suitable for the labor market or gainful employment. Some educationists refute such assertion, and argued that "where there are half-baked products from our universities, know that the problem is systematic". Turning the blame back to the government, Ndifon (2009) argued that the curriculum has not been planned to meet with the present society and in most cases there are poor facilities and sometimes non to train the students. In the same vein, Samuel [2011] dictum that the educational system laid much emphasis on certificate acquisition while neglecting the application of the knowledge and skills acquired to meet the challenges of the contemporary Nigeria. Similarly, statistics have shown that about 3 million youths graduate from our secondary school annually, but only about one-third [one million] of them proceed the higher institution; while about two millions go into the labor market without the basic employability skills. Most of these youth hate going into agriculture or any entrepreneurial jobs. When students are trained to be 'white collar job' seekers rather than job creators or self-reliant, teaming unemployed graduates becomes the consequence.

Insecurity
The empirical findings demonstrated that there is connectivity between higher unemployment and high level of insecurity in Nigeria. According to the rating by the global terrorism index [GTI], Nigeria was rated the 3 rd worst country with insecurity in the world in 2020 behind Afghanistan and Iran. This alarming level of insecurity in Nigeria has made the economy unattractive to foreign investors and as not only slowed down the level of business activities but as led to closure of some companies from operations or better still their relocation to neighboring west African country like Ghana. This has rendered thousands jobless. Ewetan and Urhie [2014] posited that the rasing wave of insecurity in Nigeria hinders business activities and discourage local and foreign investors which could retain social-economic development.

The Effect of Globalization
The process of economic globalization in labor, in Nigeria has had a tremendous negative impact on Nigeria Am. J. Soc. Dev. Entrep. 2(2) 37-49, 2023 economy and subsequently on the reduction of poverty and unemployment (Agbaegbu, 2011). According to scholte (2000) reflected in Aluko (2006), globalization means "internationalization (cross border relations between countries); and deterritorialisation (spread of super territoriality). The process whereby political, social, economic and cultural relations increasingly takes on a global scale and have profound consequence for individuals' local experience and everyday lives is referred to as globalization (Aluko, 2006).

Lack of Enabling Environment
Government does not create enabling environment for the un employed Nigerians to create job or small scale business for themselves. The hostile business environment is precipitated by poor infrastructure, particularly poor power and water supply, and trade policies which allow all kinds of imported goods to flood the country have created high unemployment rate in the country.

Historical Reforms to Reduce Unemployment In Nigeria
Several efforts have been taken by the past and present governments to reduce unemployment in Nigeria. Some of them involved creation of agencies and specially designed programmes are discussed below:

National Directorate of Employment (NDE)
This was established in November, 1986. The objective of NDE was to promptly and effectively fight unemployment by designing and implementing innovative programme which are directed towards the provision of training opportunities through the guidance and management support services to graduate farmers and small scale entrepreneurs.

National Economic Employment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)
The National Economic, employment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) was introduced in March, 2004, in order to confront the various macro-economic imbalances, social challenges and structural problems in Nigerian economy.

Subsidy Re-Investment Programme (SURE-P)
This was introduced in 2012, towards reinvesting savings accrued from fuel subsidy on critical infrastructure projects and social safety programmed. The major objectives of this programme was to employ graduates through internship programmed store duce social vulnerability

University Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (UNEDEP)
This was introduced in 2013 to tackle graduate unemployment. It was initiated by the ministry of trade and investment aimed at promoting self-employment among youth before their graduation from higher institutions of learning.

Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOU-WIN)
This programme was initiated by the Federal government, structured to finance outstanding business plans for young aspiring entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

National Social Investment Programme (NSIP)
This was launched in 2017 and infused in the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP)

N-Power Scheme
This scheme was set up by the president of Nigeria since June 8, 2016. The main objective is to address the issue of youth unemployment and help increase social development. The programme is designed to target Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 35 to acquire and develop life-long skills for becoming changes markers in their communities.

Trader Moni Epowerment Scheme
The Trader moni scheme is one of the arms of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) initiated by the Federal Government of Nigeria on the platform of its National social investment programme. The GEEP was initiated in May 2016. It was created to provide Zero-collaterals of loans to traders, artisans and farmers, aiming to improve their standard of living by expanding their businesses. According to the recent survey by the Nigerian Institute of Social land Economic Research (NISER), these programmes have not achieved the desired results because trainings have not been supplemented with grants or loans and not targeted appropriately. The public polices directed at addressing youth unemployment are being challenged by poor finance, poor administration and implementable of inconsistent policies, unimpressive attitude of the intending beneficiaries and unqualified resource personnel handling the training programmes. The selections of would-be-trainees in most cases are tainted with political biases. Slots are usually given to unqualified political party members as compensation.
There are so records of corruption by the handlers of these programmes as funds meant for the trainings are diverted to private accounts for personal use by corrupt government officials.

Socio-Economic Implications of Youth Unemployment in Ondo State
The consequences of unemployment in Nigeria as they affect Ondo state are very severe and threatening to the citizenry as the economy as a whole (Bello 2013) the unemployment episode has continued to pose many challenges to the survival of the Nigerian nation. Some of the socio -economic consequences include:

Unproductive Labour Force
According to Njoku and ihugba (2011), the most direct impact on the economy of an unproductive labor force Am. J. Soc. Dev. Entrep. 2(2) 37-49, 2023 is lost output in terms of goods and services with no income tax to collect and the loss of receipts from indirect taxes payers. Most of youth have no place in the work environment of Nigeria this ugly scenario has made the labour force to be unproductive.

Crime and Violence
With the alarming growth of youth unemployment, the grasp between the rich and the poor keeps growing. Unemployment bring about widespread criminalities societal ills, and social vices such as hooliganism, armed robbery, kidnappings, prostitution, ritual killings, "yahoo yahoo", assassinations, youth restlessness, vandalism among others.

Poverty
The effect of unemployment brings about widespread poverty and its attendant consequences like homelessness, psychological effect.

Substance Addiction
As a result of frustration that results of inability to engage in a gainful employment most people turn to drugs, alcohol and other dangerous substances and eventually become addicted to them.

Low GDP
It's an established economic reality that the size of the work force directly impacts on country's GDP. Not only does the work force produce is directly proportional, but also brings in its wake increasing purchasing power, which in turn, fuels economic growth. This unemployment contributes to reduction in the potential which exists in spurring country's GDP (Nloku and ihugba , 2011)

Psychological Effects
Youths who have spent two or more years in schools and colleges, have dreams, and aspirations. These are dreams of securing satisfying jobs following their long years of struggle, meeting basic necessities of life (food, clothing, shelter and health care, graduating to a life of comfort, dignity and eventually, enjoying the luxuries of life . The trauma of living an unfulfilled life can lead to psychological scar that is very difficult to face at early stage of life.
Health Issues lack of income or steady income apart for the above factors, also leads to inadequate nutrition and lack of access to medical treatment which will adversely health of the youths and their families.

Brain Drain
Youth unemployment has led to mass immigration of trained and qualify youth from Nigeria. This will cause shortage of important and skilled principle as loss it potential future entrepreneurs. According to the united Nation Development Programmes,Nigeria ranks among countries that are believed to be the most affected by brain drain.

METHODOLOGY
The research design for this study is the triangulation mixed method design. The triangulation mixed method description is a method that allows collection of data in both qualitative and quantitative ways. The advantage of this method is that the researchers gather both quantitative and qualitative data, compare results from the analysis of both data and make interpretations as to whether the result of both data support or contract each other [Creswell, 2002]. The basic rationale for this design is that one data collection method supplies strength to offset the weaknesses of the other method. Since data analysis is expected to be presented in two phases in a triangulation mixed method which involves the quantitative and qualitative data. In the first sampling procedure, the multistage sampling techniques has adopted to break the population into clusters. This requires choosing of sample in stages until the researcher gets to required sample (Asemah et al. 2012).

Stage 2
This involves stratification of this eleven wards into rural and urban wards. Therefore Akure south is broken down into 9 urban wards and 2 rural wards.

Stage 3
Four wards where selected through sample random sampling using balloting i.e. 2 urban wards and 2 rural wards. Communities in these four selected wards were listed out and 2 communities each were selected through sample random sampling by balloting. Thus, communities were selected in all: 4 urban communities and 4 rural communities. The selected communities are: IlekunAponmu, Ita-oniyan Oda for rural communities; Isolo and Oke-AroIjomu, Isinkan communities for urban communities. The youths from these areas were assessed using structured questionnaire. In the second stage sampling procedure for qualitative analysis, the purposive sampling technique was used. 16 persons were interviewed in line with the study under investigation. 2 persons from each of the selected communities. The study used two instruments: questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire instrument was in two sections: the demographic section which generated information about the bio-data of the respondents while the psychographic section focused on the research questions. The questionnaire made used of 10 close and open-ended questions. On the other hand, the interview consisted of 5 questions which were drafted in relation to the study under investigation. The answers to the interview schedule were coded after quantitative data have been presented. The essence of the coding was to allow numerical comparison between the questionnaire and the interview results. Consent were sought from the interviewees so that voice could be recorded, audio taped, transcribed and later analyzed.

Data Presentation and Analysis
The data generated were analyzed in two phases. The first phase was done quantitatively using sample frequency distribution tables, and percentages to assess the effects of unemployment on the social-economic development of Ondo State. The second phase of the analysis was approached qualitatively. By this, this data analysis was presented in textual forms separately. This gives room for data comparison.

First Phase: Data Analysis (Quantitative Approach)
This aspect of data analysis was one quantitative using simple frequency tables, percentages and numbers to access the youth unemploymentas it affects socialeconomic development of Akure southlocal government area of Ondo State. The table below provides the demographic and psychographic analysis of data collected in the course of this study. The data are based on the numbers of copies of the questionnaire completed and returned by the respondents.

The Questionnaire Distribution
No of questionnaire 399 No of questionnaire returned 350 No of questionnaire not returned 49 Source: Field Survey, 2022  From the table above, 350(87.79%) copies of the questionnaire were completed and returned. These were used for the study.    From the table 4 above: 280 (80%) respondents are single, 164 (18.29%) respondents are married, 4(1.14%) are divorced while 2 (0.57%) are widowed. This shows that the majority of the respondents are single.

Psychographic Data
Research Question 1: What is the rate of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area? From the table above, 344(98.29%) respondents agreed that youth unemployment has effects on socio-economic development of Akure south local government while 6(1.71%) respondents disagreed that youth unemployment does not have any effect on socio-economic development of Akure south local government. No respondents were indifferent. This means that youth unemployment has effects on socio-economic development of Akure south local government area.
Research Question 3: What are the causes of youth unemployment in akure south local government area?  From the table above 224 (74.67%) respondents agreed that the rate of unemployment is high among Akure south youths. 76(25.33%) respondents agreed that the rate of unemployment youth In Akure South Local Government is low. While none of the respondents was indifferent. This means that there is high rate of unemployment among youth in Akure south local government area.

Research question 2: Does youth unemployment have effect on social-economic development of Akure south local government area?
From the table above, the analysis of the causes of youth unemployment in Akure south local government area, 71 (20.30%) respondents chose corruption, 20(5.71%) respondents chose infrastructural decay,18(5.14%) respondents chose neglect of agriculture, 32(9.14%) respondents chose unfavourable government policies 20(5.71%) chose effect of globalization 26(7.43%) chose unfavourable terms and condition for job recruitment 28(8%) chose the defective educational curricula 12(3.43%) respondents chose insecurity 21(6%) respondents chose negative attitude to youth to work while 102(29.14%) respondents chose lack of purposeful leadership and lack of good government.
From the above analysis it shows that lack of purposeful leadership an d lack of good government is perceived as the most significant cause of youth unemployment in Akure south local government area Research question 4: What are the effects of youth unemployment on socio -economic development Akure South Local Government Area?
opinion that the government effort have not effectively combated the high level of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area.
From the result, it shows that the various governments efforts are not effective in combating the youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government area of Ondo State.

Second phase: Data analysis using Qualitative Approach
In this stage of the analysis, it involves Qualitative approach for data analysis. Presentation of data was carried out separately in textual forms. Sixteen (16) persons were interviewed in line with questions raised in the interview schedule. 2 persons each were drawn from the eight(8)communities selected. They are within the age bracket of 18-35 years. From the interviewed persons, ten (10) of them were male while the remaining Six (6) were female. Fourteen (14) of them have SSCE/WASSCE certificates while four (4) of them have PSLC.

Research Question 1. What is the rate of youth unemployment in Akure South local government area?
The interviews conducted this cause of this study reveals that the rate of unemployment among the youth in Akure south is high all the Sixteen (16) interviewees opinions that concurred with his submission.

Research Question 2: Does youth unemployment have effects on socio-economic development of Akure south local government?
The interview conducted in this study shows that all the respondents agreed that youth unemployment has effects on socio-economic development of Akure south local government area.

Research Question 3: what are the causes of youth unemployment in Akure South Local Government Area?
The interview conducted in the study the researcher elicited information from interviewees from the four selected communities within Akure south local government on the causes of youth unemployment, among the causes listed are: corruption, infrastructural  decay, neglect of agricultural sector, unfavourable government policies, effects of globalization, unfavourable terms and conditions for jobs recruitment, defective educational system, insecurity, negative attitude of youth to work and bad leaderships and lack of good governance.14 interviewees were of the opinions that bad leadership and bad governance is the dominant cause of youth unemployment in Akure south:2 interviewees agreed that corruption plays more active role in the youth unemployment in Akure south local government area while the remaining 2 respondents opined that negative attitude of youths to work is the major cause of unemployment in Akure south local government area. He further averred that most youth are lazy and have been infected with get-rich quick syndrome. This shows that bad leadership and bad governance is the major cause of youth unemployment. Analysis of the results shows that majority of the respondents supported bad leadership and bad governance as a major cause of youth unemployment in Akure South local government area.

Research Question 4: What are the effects of youth unemployment on the socio-economic development of Akure South local government area.
Flowing from the identified effects of youth unemployment on the socio-economic development of Akure South local government area, poverty, health issues, psychological effects, substance abuse, high crime rate, youth restiveness, dysfunctional social and emotional relationship and brain drain. The respondents views supported high crime rate as the most predominant effect of unemployment among Akure South Local Government area. This shows that high crime rate is the major effect of youth unemployment on the socioeconomic development of Akure south local government area.

Research Question 5: What is the level of effectiveness of government efforts in combating youth unemployment in Akure south local government Area?
The analysis of the opinion of the 16 interviewees, 12 supported the ineffectiveness of the existing government efforts to combat youth unemployment while 2 opined that the efforts of the government are moderately efficient while 2 opined that the governments efforts are effectively checkmating the youth unemployment scourage. The result shows that existing government's efforts are not effective in combating youth unemployment in Akure South Local government Area.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
In the analysis of data collected, the study shows there was higher percentage of men than women (see table.1),it also receded that the people sampled were educated (see table 3) and were within the age bracket of 18-35 years which means they belong to the active and employable population that can contribute significantly to socioeconomic development of their society. Majority of the respondents are also single (see table 4). The findings from the quantitative approach revealed that the rate of youth unemployment in Akure south is high (see table 5). Findings revealed that majority of the respondents (344, 98.29%)opined that youth unemployment has effects on socio-economic development of Akure south local government area . Majority of the respondents averred the following: Bad leadership bad governance account for youth unemployment in Akure south local government area (102, 29.14%) : High Crime rate is a direct consequence of youth unemployment in Akure south L.G.A (see table 8) : Good leadership and good governance with address significantly the youth unemployment in Akure south L.G.A (see table 9). Above all the study also revealed that the existing government reforms and policies have not yielded the desired result to checkmate the high rate of youth unemployment in Akure South Local government Area. These results were equally supported by analyses of qualitative data. However, the submission above provides more insight into the understanding of the study vis-à-vis the rate, causes, socio-economic implications and solutions of youth unemployment in Akure south local government area with the geographical entity of ondo state The data generated will assist governments, policy makers and future researchers.

CONCLUSION
This study concluded that there is high rate of youth unemployment in Akure south local government area of Ondo State. The gravity of its socio-economic effects among the youth in Akure south is palpable and conspicuously noticeable. This implication cannot be over emphasized. It was revealed by this study that corruption, infrastructural decay, neglect of agriculture, unfavourable terms and condition for job recruitment , bad leadership and bad governance among others factors were responsible for the high rate of unemployment in Akure South Local government area. These factors have overarching social and economic implications on individuals, households and on the society at large. The findings of the study are similar to the study conducted by P.S.O Uddin (2013) on the causes, effects and solutions to youth unemployment problems in Nigerian which concluded that majority of the participants were of the opinion that youth unemployment are responsible for some of the socio-economic effects in Nigeria. After due juxtaposition with the previous studies, the following recommendations were proffered.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the result of this study, the researcher makes the following recommendations that it implemented scourge, improve standard of living, and human existential values.
1. Governments at all levels must aggressively and sincerely wage war against corruption-various anti-corruption agencies like EFCC, ICPC. CCB should be restructured for better efficiency. This will preventdiversion of public funds that are meant for job creation.
2. There is an urgent need by the governments to diversify from our monolithic economy for example Ondo State government in conjunction with foreign investors should embark on exploration of large bitumen deposits at Agbabu. This will accommodate large number of unemployed youths in the state.
3. Development of agriculture. Government of all levels should encourage youth participation in agriculture by providing loans, grants and other farm inputs such as fertilizers, improved verities of seedings. Youths should be taught on modern farming techniques.
4. Governments should be more pro-active in their efforts to tackle in security that has almost engulfed the entire country. The activities of fulanis herdsmen have discouraged so many youths from engaging in agriculture. Also, companies are folding up and relocating to neighbouring countries because of insecurity in Nigeria.
5. Our education system, as it stands, is very defective and does give room for innovation and productivity. The governments should incorporate entrepreneurial trainings in the school curriculum.
6. Election of good leaders that will promote good governance across the board 7. Development of infrastructure like electricity which is one of the most sensitive and essential amenities that drives the country economy, stables source of electricity will encourage industrial boom as small medium and large-scale industries will spring up 8. Government should provide conducive environment and favourable policies so that private investors can participate in the establishment of industries.
9. Ondo state government should fill up the existing vacancies in ministries, department and Agencies with able bored youths who are qualified and willing to work 10. The government should provide adequate funds for all the skills acquisition agencies and employment intervention programmes