Nigeria’s unemployment rate increased to 23.1 per cent in the third
quarter of 2018 from 18.8 per cent recorded in third quarter 2017, the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.
According to the Labour Force Statistics – Volume I released stats office,
the number of unemployed increased from 17.6 million in Q4 2017 to 20.9
million in Q3 2018.
Giving a breakdown, the agency said that 3.1 million unemployed Nigerians
have been unemployed for three years and above, representing 32.1 per
cent of the total 9.7 million unemployed persons during the review period.
Also, another 3.4 million Nigerians or 35.0 per cent have been unemployed
for less than a year while 1.6 million people or 17.2 per cent have been
unemployed for more than one year. 1.5 million Persons or 15.7 per cent of
the unemployed have been so for two years, or more.
It added that the economically active or working age population also
increased from 111.1 million in Q3, 2017 to 115.5million in Q3, 2018.
The labour force rose to 90.5million in Q3, 2018 from 75.94 million in Q3
2015, 80.66 million in Q3 2016 and 85.1 million in Q3,2017, it stated..
The report showed that the number of persons in the labour force (i.e.
people who are able and willing to work increased from 75.94 million in Q3
2015 to 80.66 million in Q3 2016 to 85.1 million in Q3,2017 to 90.5million
in Q3, 2018, while the total number of people in employment (i.e with
jobs) increased from 68.4 million in Q3 2015, to 68.72 million in Q3 2016,
to 69.09 million in Q3 2017 and 69.54 million in Q3 2018.
Total number of people in full-time employment (at least 40 hours a week)
increased from 51.1 million in Q3 2017 to 51.3 million in Q3, 2018.
Total number of people in part-time employment (or underemployment)
decreased from 13.20 million in Q3 2015 to 11.19 million in Q3 2016 but
increased to 18.02 million in Q3 2017 and to 18.21 million in Q3 2018.
Total number of people classified as unemployed, which means they did
nothing at all or worked too few hours (under 20 hours a week) to be
classified as employed increased from 17.6 million in Q4 2017 to 20.9
million in Q3 2018.
Of the 20.9 million persons classified as unemployed as at Q3 2018 11.1
million did some form of work but for too few hours a week (under 20
hours) to be officially classified as employed while 9.7 million did
absolutely nothing.
Of the 9.7 million unemployed that did absolutely nothing as at Q3 2018,
90.1 per cent of them or 8.77 million were reported to be unemployed and
doing nothing because they were first time job seekers and have never
worked before. On the other hand, 9.9million or 0.9 report of the 9.7
million that were unemployed and doing nothing at all reported they were
unemployed and did nothing at all because they were previously employed
but lost their jobs at some point in the past which is why they were
unemployed.
The unemployment rate accordingly, increased from 18.8% in Q3 2017 to
23.1% in Q3, 2018
