Unemployment: 33,955 applicants jostle for 2,208 Cross River civil service jobs

A breakdown of the figures revealed that the highest number of applicants were for clerical officers.

At least 33,955 applicants have applied to fill the advertised 2,208 job vacancies in the Cross River State civil service.

Based on a document obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria, the state Civil Service Commission has shortlisted only 956 applicants.

The document dated 19 November and signed by the chairperson of the Commission, Maurice Effiwatt, showed that the number of applications included 31,818 for the core civil service and 2,137 for the state health sector.

The government had advertised 2,000 and 208 spaces for the core service jobs and the health sector respectively.

According to the document, only 750 of the 31,818 applicants for the core service were shortlisted, while 206 of the 2,137 applications for the health sector were shortlisted.

A further breakdown of the figure revealed that applications for clerical officers were the highest, with 8,358 applicants, followed by administrative officers and messengers, with 7,700 and 1,916 applicants, respectively.

The three least positions applied for were firemen, drivers and security with 370, 401, and 551 applications respectively.

Similarly, in the health sector, applicants for the nursing profession were the highest with 1,184 followed by that of medical laboratory scientists and public health/environmental health that had 446 and 300 each.

According to the commission, respective applicants would be notified of the date and time for the interview.