Impact of Employment Status and Nature of Employment of Household Head on Household Poverty Incidence in Nigeria

Abstract

Unemployment and poverty are major indicators of underdevelopment. Unfortunately, despite the enormousmaterial and potential human resources in Nigeria, the country has over the years been plagued by the twoproblems.. This study employs binary logistic regression technique in analysing the impact of employment statusand nature of employment of household head on household poverty incidence in Nigeria. Various occupationalgroups and occupational status of household head are added to major correlates of poverty such as householdsize, age of household head, sex of household head, region and sector of residence, access to regular remittances,access to credit, ownership of housing unit and educational level of household head to form the regressors whilethe poverty status of household is the regressand. The analysis is based on the 2004 Nigeria Living StandardSurvey (NLSS) conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics. The results of the study show that employmentstatus and nature of employment of household head in general have significant impact on household povertyincidence. Thus the government should put adequate measures in place to provide sufficient employmentopportunities so as to pave the way for rapid and sustainable development in the country. The study furthershows that some types of employment do not have significant impact on household poverty incidence such asemployment in agriculture/forestry, production, transport, manufacturing and processing. The governmentshould take adequate steps to make all occupations lucrative and contribute significantly towards povertyreduction in Nigeria.

Key words: Employment Status, Poverty Incidence, Logit Model, Nigeria.