The Effect of Part-time Employment on Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development in Plateau State

Abstract

Part time employment is an integral part of employment practice in the labor market of all countries. These categories of workers have been employed by Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) and they perform significant roles in economic growth and development of MSMEs and national economies. The Nigerian government had an unfavorable perception of part time employment such that in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), there was planned reduction in part time employment that was not achieved. In the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Agenda 2050, the focus is on full time employment without any attention on part time employment. This study sets out to find out if these categories of workers contribute to the development of MSMEs despite the negative perception of the government. Discrete choice models were used and it was found that they contributed to the reduction of being a micro business enterprise and contributed to the probability of remaining a small and medium scale business. In terms of hours spent at work, it was found that there is a higher probability of remaining in the small and medium scale category with more hours (greater than 2 hours) of work. It was therefore recommended that minimum hours be fixed for part time employment among MSMEs.