Nigeria is third worst country to suffer job loss

  By Ben Eguzozie

• Puerto Rico, USA lead scale

• But Sierra Leone is most up-to par country for dealing with employee redundancies

Being made redundant is not a good experience. It can repeatedly be a very problematic time for many people, especially considering searching for new work, taking care of a family, or paying off a loan will become even tougher for people out of work.

In the current global financial climate, a new research carried out by Lensa on the worst countries in the world to be laid off, revealed that Nigeria ranks third on the scale.

The research revealed how fairly the workers are treated in different countries in times of restructuring. It also looked at notice periods for redundancy and unemployment rates, both contributing to how hard or easy it will be to find new work, as well as redundancy pay and rules over the world, to find out where in the world is the worst place to be laid off.

Nigeria, with currently more than 133 million of its people plunged into multidimensional poverty in the last seven years, according to the latest report by the country’s data agency, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), is only ahead of New Zealand and Djibouti.

According to the research, Nigeria only enforces four out of nine possible redundancy laws, as enshrined in the World Bank redundancy rules and redundancy pay factors. However, this still does not guarantee a worker (in Nigeria) any severance package. Employees do get a notice period: One week for employees with one year of tenure and 4.3 for employees with over five years.

Also, Nigeria has an unemployment rate of 33 percent in 2022, with more than 60 percent of the unemployed being youths.

Puerto Rico, a South American nation, takes the crown as the worst location in the world to be laid off. In Puerto Rico, the law doesn’t guarantee any severance pay even for those who have worked in a company for 10 years; and employees can be dismissed without a notice period.

The United States, the world’s economic giant, surprisingly ranks as the second worst place to be laid off in. Out of nine possible redundancy laws, the US enforces just two of them. One also gets no legally guaranteed severance pay or notice period.

New Zealand, comes in fourth place for the worst country to be laid off in. New Zealanders see no legally guaranteed severance pay or notice periods, and only three of nine redundancy rules are enforced. However, the country’s unemployment is relatively low, at only 3.3 percent.

Djibouti, a country located in the Horn of Africa, completes the list of the top five worst places to lose a job in the world. In Djibouti, workers are guaranteed a 4.3-week notice period if they have worked anywhere over a year, however, they are not guaranteed severance pay.

The world’s best places for layoffs

On the positive end of the scale, Sierra Leone, a country on the southwest coast of Africa, ranks as the most up to par country for dealing with employee redundancies. Here, one is guaranteed at least a 13-week notice period and employees with a 10-year tenure can secure a massive 132-week severance pay package.

In Egypt, workers are guaranteed severance pay ranging from 4.3 weeks with one year of tenure to 54.2 weeks, with over 10 years of tenure. Egypt also enforces a good 7/9 of the possible redundancy rules.

Also, in Moldova, where all employees with one year tenure are given 8.7 weeks of notice and 12.9 to 18.6 weeks of severance pay. Moldova has a low unemployment rate of just three percent, meaning that it should be easier to find new work compared to other countries.