Fresh Graduates Earn Less Than N20,000 Monthly —Report

• Fresh Graduates Earn Less Than N20,000 Monthly

There is prevalence of under payment for fresh Nigerian graduates as one in four of them earns less than N20,000 at their first jobs, a survey by Stutern, an internship and entry-level employment portal, has revealed.

In its report titled, ‘The Nigerian Graduates,’ Stutern said 75 per cent of new graduates earn less than N50,000 as their first job and over 80 per cent of the respondents said they could not neither afford to buy a car nor rent an apartment from their salary.

The report showed that the majority of the graduates had their first jobs in the education sector as a result of the National Youth Service Corps programme; while the technology, non-profit, banking, and finance sectors began to absorbed more graduates as their second jobs.

It stated that there were more unemployed Ordinary National and Higher National degree holders while the most employed Nigerians possessed Masters of Business Administration and doctorate degrees.

The purpose of the report done in partnership with Jobberman and BudgIT, according to Stutern, is to empower all stakeholders to better understand the state of youth employment in the Nigerian economy.

The report also discovered that graduates from Covenant University were the most employable, followed by the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

The Stutern report said, “On our ranking of the best institutions for return on investments, top honours went to University of Ilorin; and none of the private universities made the list. This was measured based on candidates’ starting salary.”

“Over 80 per cent of employed graduates currently earn not more than N150,000 per month. Most graduates earn between N20,000 and N50,000 monthly, both as starting salary and current salary.”

The Co-founder, Stutern, Kehinde Ayanleye, said, “Graduate unemployment is a massive waste of resources – 36.26 per cent of our graduates are unemployed. But what could be worse is the under-compensation of talent. It has implications for security, health, and economic growth.”

The report stated that most graduates said that communication skills and knowledge of the job were the two least skills their academic institution prepared them for.