James Emejo in Abuja
The country’s unemployment rate increased significantly to 5 per cent in the third quarter of last year (Q3 2023) compared to 4.2 per cent in the preceding quarter, the national Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.
Unemployment rate is defined as the share of the labour force – the combination of unemployed and employed people – who are not employed but who are actively searching and are available for work, and represents a key component of labour underutilisation.
According to the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) for Q3 2023, the unemployment among women stood at six per compared to four per cent for men.
Disaggregated by location, unemployment rate was higher in urban areas at six per cent and four per cent in rural areas, while the youth unemployment was estimated at 8.6 per cent.
The NBS pointed out that in terms of educational attainment, unemployment was 7.8 per cent among persons with post-secondary education, 6.3 per cent for those with upper secondary education, 5.5 per cent for those with lower secondary education, 4.8 per cent for those with primary education, and 2.7 per cent for those with no formal education.
It said 75.6 per cent of Nigeria’s working-age population was in employment.
Th report pointed out that 87.3 per cent of employed Nigerians were primarily self-employed with the remaining 12.7 per cent being primarily engaged as employees.
It showed that 90.5 per cent of women were engaged as self-employed compared to 84.2 per cent for men while 80.3 per cent of employed people in urban areas were self-employed; lower than 94.5 per cent of employed people in rural areas.
Details later…
