𝕗𝕠𝕝𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕞𝕚

Recruitment can be a funny old thing here in Nigeria. You can put an advert out for an executive assistant and, because you are paying well above market rate, you will get people who really have no business being executive assistants applying for the role. You have a degree in Statisticd and you’ve worked as a statistician for a number of years—why would you then want to be an executive assistant to a lawyer? This is what economists and labour-market specialists describe as occupational mismatch or professional downgrading. People are educated and may even have specialised training, but there are not enough properly paid jobs that use those qualifications. They therefore move into roles below, outside or unrelated to their training because those roles offer better income or greater stability. It’s really unfortunate.