Abstract
This study empirically examined the effect of government expenditure on employment generation in Nigeria between 1988 and 2022. The study proxied employment generation by total employment while the proxies of government expenditure adopted are government expenditure on agriculture, government expenditure on education, government expenditure on health and government expenditure on construction. Time series data utilized were sourced from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin. The study adopted Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique as the main data analysis technique. The findings of this study revealed that there is long run relationship among total employment, government expenditure on agriculture, government expenditure on education, government expenditure on health and government expenditure on construction in Nigeria while government expenditure on agriculture, government expenditure on education, government expenditure on health and government expenditure on construction have positive and significant effect on total employment in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study concluded that government expenditure plays a significant positive role in employment generation in Nigeria. The study recommended among others that government should expand government spending on construction projects, including infrastructure development such as roads, bridges, housing, and public buildings, to generate significant employment opportunities. This can absorb a large portion of the unemployed, particularly unskilled and semi-skilled workers, thereby reducing overall unemployment rates in the country.
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