This study examines the nexus between job creation, poverty reduction and economic growth in Nigeria over the period 1986–2023. Job creation is proxied by the unemployment rate and the labour-force participation rate, poverty reduction by the poverty index and the Gini index of income inequality, and human capital by the adult literacy rate, while real gross domestic product (RGDP) measures economic growth and government expenditure enters as a control variable. Adopting an ex-post-facto design and annual secondary data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics and the World Development Indicators, the study employs the Augmented Dickey–Fuller unit-root test, a correlation-matrix check for multicollinearity, the ARDL bounds test for cointegration, and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model for short-run and long-run estimation. The bounds test confirms a long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables. The estimates show that the unemployment rate and the poverty index exert negative and statistically significant effects on RGDP in both the short run and the long run, the labour-force participation rate and government expenditure exert positive and significant effects, while income inequality and the literacy rate are correctly signed but statistically insignificant. The error-correction term is negative and significant, indicating a stable but slow adjustment to equilibrium. The study concludes that labour-market conditions, poverty dynamics and fiscal effort are the binding levers of growth in Nigeria, and recommends labour-intensive job creation, transparent reinvestment of fiscal savings, and targeted skills development for youth and women.

Keywords: job creation; poverty reduction; economic growth; unemployment; ARDL; Nigeria

JEL classification: E24; I32; O40; O55; C22