ABSTRACT
The aim of the study is to critically investigate the impact of labour force participation on Economic growth in Nigeria.
Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was used as a proxy for Economic growth, while the explanatory variables used in the study include; level of unemployment, level of female participation, level of labour force participation and Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The study employed annual time series data from 1980 – 2015 i.e 38 observations sourced from NBS and World Bank.
Unit root test were also conducted using the Phillip perron test for stationarity of the variables, an autoregressive lagged model was adopted to show the relationship between the variables and it was discovered that labour force has a positive and insignificant relationship with real GDP.
It was found that female participation has a positive and significant relationship with Real Gross Domestic Product, while labour force has a positive relationship with Real GDP.
It was also recommended among other strategies that with the results indicating a positive and insignificant relationship between unemployment and RGDP in Nigeria, a careful unemployment reduction strategy coupled with institutional and policy changes could be beneficial to this Country.
