NBS reports 4.2% increase in unemployment rate in Nigeria

Business a.m

Nigeria’s  unemployment rate rose to 4.2 per cent in Q2 2023 from the 4.1 per cent recorded in Q1 2023,  quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) for Q2 2023 published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the NBS, the unemployment rate is the percentage of the labour force that is actively looking for work but cannot find it. The survey found that among the population with post-secondary education, the unemployment rate was 8.0 per cent in Q2 2023. This indicates that people with higher levels of education are facing greater challenges in finding employment.

“Those with upper secondary education was 5.4 per cent, while those with lower secondary education was 3.7 per cent, 3.0 per cent for those with primary education and 2.5 per cent for those with no formal education,” it stated. 

The report disclosed that unemployment rate among youth aged 15-24 years was higher in Q2 2023 than in Q1 2023, increasing from 6.9 per cent to 7.2 per cent. This indicates that young people are finding it increasingly difficult to find work.

Additionally, the report found that men had a lower unemployment rate than women, with 3.5 per cent for men and 5.9 per cent for women. 

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in urban areas was higher in Q2 2023 than in Q1 2023, rising from 5.4 per cent to 5.9 per cent. However, the unemployment rate in rural areas stood 2.5 per cent in Q2 2023, which was a decline from the 2.9 per cent recorded in Q1 2023.

The NBS also reported that the rate of time-related underemployment, which is defined as the share of employed people who worked less than 40 hours per week but were willing and available to work more, decreased slightly from 12.2 per cent in Q1 2023 to 11.8 per cent in Q2 2023.

According to the report, the combination of unemployment and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) was 15.5 per cent in Q2 2023. This means that a total of 15.5 per cent of people in the labour force were either unemployed or underemployed during this period.

The report also found that the labour force participation rate among the working-age population was 80 per cent in Q2 2023, slightly higher than the 79.9 per cent recorded in Q1 2023

The report found that 88.0 per cent of employed Nigerians were self-employed, meaning that they worked for themselves and were not employed by an organisation. This is a very high rate of self-employment, suggesting that a large portion of the workforce in Nigeria is not working in traditional jobs.

The report also found that the informal employment rate, which is the share of people working in non-salaried, casual jobs, was 92.7 per cent, an indication that the majority of workers in Nigeria are not covered by formal employment contracts.

The NBS report also indicated that 13.8 per cent of youth aged 15-24 years were classified as NEETs, meaning they were not employed, not in education or training, and were not seeking employment. This rate has increased from the previous two quarters, indicating that the situation of young people in the Nigerian labour market is becoming more challenging.