An Assessment of the Effect of Casual Employment on the Level of Poverty and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examines the implications of Casual employment on the poverty alleviation efforts of the government and economic growth in Nigeria. The study reviewed the existing literature on Casual employment and their impact on the poverty level in society and the economy. The study used a survey method and analysed the questionnaire distributed to sampled respondents. The study found that remunerations and working condition of casual staff are not fair compared to that of permanent staff. The casual workers are often not paid the minimum wage which is a monthly wage because the casual workers are usually underemployed as such do not get the minimum wage. In our survey, we found that 59% of the (casual staff) respondents have a monthly salary of less than the minimum wage. It shows that Casual work is going against government programmes of employment creation and poverty alleviation. Casual work is detrimental to employees and has grave consequences on the employer and the national economy. Casual staff are mostly low-level workers in every organisation. Many people have classified them as unskilled workers. The survey shows that 26% of the casual staff respondents attended tertiary education level against 40% among the full-time staff. Whereas, 35% of the casual staff have no formal education against 26% of the fulltime staff. The study concludes that Casual work as perpetuated in Nigeria is a threat to the desired level of economic growth and a means of increasing poverty. The Casual employment model enables employers to ignore workplace standards and workers’ social needs. The push towards Casual employment in society is evidence of increasing poverty. The study recommends that the government needs to check the casualisation of work in the employment system, which have a tremendous negative impact on the economy