The Nigerian government says it received about 700,000 applications for just 500 jobs at the national tax authorities, reports the BBC.

The staggering number of applicants comes as the country struggles with its worst economic crisis in years and is a sign of just how tough the job market is in Africa’s largest economy.

For every position at the inland revenue service there were 1,400 applications.

Of those bidding for employment, the chairman of the tax office said more than 2,000 had first class university degrees.

Officially, unemployment stands at 13% but many believe the true figure is higher.

The plunge in global oil prices has pummelled Nigeria’s economy, triggering the first recession in more than a decade.

For the country’s army of school and university graduates, jobs are hard to come by – and are often based on who you know rather than what you know.

Growing youth unemployment is a ticking time bomb.

Ii is a major factor fuelling the insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram as well as the renewed militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.