Belt Ready for 2024 Economic Flight
15 January 2024 By Abiodun Kareem Giwa
People searching for employment (Courtesy: Nigeria Punch Newspapers)
Employment is more than just a source of income. It is life and the reason it is a livelihood. It is imperative to be employed rather than just desirable. People in societies without unemployment benefits can understand better what it means to be unemployed. It means not knowing where the next meal will come from and the fear of losing the roof over the head, which lack of income can cause.
The International Labour Organization, ILO, projection that two million workers may lose their jobs in 2024 should be a reason for trepidation. It says the past three years' gains, according to Punch newspapers, are heading to a loss in the new year.
People have just heralded another new year, proclaiming themselves a happy new year and wishing themselves and their friends, blessings and prosperity. The news of a likely loss of millions of jobs does not represent a positive outlook. Just as you consider the negativity of the projection, you see a Nigerian pastor teaching his congregation in a recorded YouTube video to become job creators and not employment hunters.
I agree with Pastor Tunde Bakare on the need for people to follow their passions to be job creators. But I disagree with his lambasting those whose fate is to search for a job to be employees. I will instead urge everyone to tighten the belt for the year's economic flight. The fundamental truth is people need a source of income as an employer or an employee. Good education is part of the bargain. It does not necessarily mean one has to follow a significant field of study in college to become a job creator. Education gives insight, strategy, and direction.
Some people talk about employment; others discuss gainful employment. Some areas make being in employment more gainful than being a creator, and there are times when being a creator is more beneficial than being an employee. Gainfulness is the watchword. Andre has an excellent example from his father's experience, first as an employee and later as a contractor. The father was a washerman at a high school. He paid his first child's school fees as an employee with his income deducted at source before he got paid whatever remained. The college suddenly ended the employment, turning him and his co-workers into contractors. It was not the washermen's bargain. They preferred to be employees and not contractors.
They loved independence, but how it came to them unprepared was unacceptable. Gainfulness went out of the window. The pain of just having a job took over. There was no level of private washings outside the college to replace the income lost from salary earnings. Andre knew the pain as a child and lost the high school education opportunity that his eldest brother had. Andre embarked on a journey to the city in search of a job. He began work as an iron bender/fixer trainee with the Bulgarians at a construction site. It was not a choice but an option. The training received there lasted him about a year to care for body and soul before joining a hotel as a bedroom steward. It was also not a choice, but it helped him survive for another three years. He studied for the General Certificate of Education as a private candidate while engaged in these jobs. Job seekers with a high school education were different from him. They sought clerical work and not dirty or hard work.
Andre was so careless that he could not get a clerical job. He saw clerical work as gainful but was surprised that, in the end, most clerical employees still seek ways to go to the university for access to gainful employment. Andre's experience followed him to the United States, where his initial work was at a car wash. He graduated from there to a job as a security officer, which he did throughout his college years. He began prospecting for gainful employment after college. Migrants' certificates and degrees are evaluated in the U.S. Some are accepted, and others are not.
Therefore, degree holders from some countries work either as security officers or doing something less attractive work in the U.S. However, it is not the nature of the job that matters, but the income, which, with it, will make life easier. Compared to non-existence in developing nations, the unemployment benefit payment in developed countries leaves many unemployed conditions in developing countries undesirable. Employed fellows in an advanced country are sure of meager income if out of employment compared to their counterparts in developing nations. The onus is on developing countries to embrace the economic management system with unemployment benefits to bridge inequalities between those employed and those out of employment.
The ILO projection will rattle people in developing countries but not in advanced nations. Another lesson here is for job seekers desperately searching for a job to accept any work to remain afloat until they can get their chosen career.
The International Labour Organization, ILO, projection that two million workers may lose their jobs in 2024 should be a reason for trepidation. It says the past three years' gains, according to Punch newspapers, are heading to a loss in the new year.
People have just heralded another new year, proclaiming themselves a happy new year and wishing themselves and their friends, blessings and prosperity. The news of a likely loss of millions of jobs does not represent a positive outlook. Just as you consider the negativity of the projection, you see a Nigerian pastor teaching his congregation in a recorded YouTube video to become job creators and not employment hunters.
I agree with Pastor Tunde Bakare on the need for people to follow their passions to be job creators. But I disagree with his lambasting those whose fate is to search for a job to be employees. I will instead urge everyone to tighten the belt for the year's economic flight. The fundamental truth is people need a source of income as an employer or an employee. Good education is part of the bargain. It does not necessarily mean one has to follow a significant field of study in college to become a job creator. Education gives insight, strategy, and direction.
Some people talk about employment; others discuss gainful employment. Some areas make being in employment more gainful than being a creator, and there are times when being a creator is more beneficial than being an employee. Gainfulness is the watchword. Andre has an excellent example from his father's experience, first as an employee and later as a contractor. The father was a washerman at a high school. He paid his first child's school fees as an employee with his income deducted at source before he got paid whatever remained. The college suddenly ended the employment, turning him and his co-workers into contractors. It was not the washermen's bargain. They preferred to be employees and not contractors.
They loved independence, but how it came to them unprepared was unacceptable. Gainfulness went out of the window. The pain of just having a job took over. There was no level of private washings outside the college to replace the income lost from salary earnings. Andre knew the pain as a child and lost the high school education opportunity that his eldest brother had. Andre embarked on a journey to the city in search of a job. He began work as an iron bender/fixer trainee with the Bulgarians at a construction site. It was not a choice but an option. The training received there lasted him about a year to care for body and soul before joining a hotel as a bedroom steward. It was also not a choice, but it helped him survive for another three years. He studied for the General Certificate of Education as a private candidate while engaged in these jobs. Job seekers with a high school education were different from him. They sought clerical work and not dirty or hard work.
Andre was so careless that he could not get a clerical job. He saw clerical work as gainful but was surprised that, in the end, most clerical employees still seek ways to go to the university for access to gainful employment. Andre's experience followed him to the United States, where his initial work was at a car wash. He graduated from there to a job as a security officer, which he did throughout his college years. He began prospecting for gainful employment after college. Migrants' certificates and degrees are evaluated in the U.S. Some are accepted, and others are not.
Therefore, degree holders from some countries work either as security officers or doing something less attractive work in the U.S. However, it is not the nature of the job that matters, but the income, which, with it, will make life easier. Compared to non-existence in developing nations, the unemployment benefit payment in developed countries leaves many unemployed conditions in developing countries undesirable. Employed fellows in an advanced country are sure of meager income if out of employment compared to their counterparts in developing nations. The onus is on developing countries to embrace the economic management system with unemployment benefits to bridge inequalities between those employed and those out of employment.
The ILO projection will rattle people in developing countries but not in advanced nations. Another lesson here is for job seekers desperately searching for a job to accept any work to remain afloat until they can get their chosen career.
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