UNEMPLOYED NIGERIANS HIT 1.39 MILLION IN 3 MONTHS

Nigeria, Sept. 05, 2016 – These are indeed terrible times for Nigerians, following recent statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS), which showed that unemployed / underemployed Nigerians grew from 78.5 million in the first quarter of 2016 to 79.9 million in the second quarter, just a period of three months.

“This means 1.39 million persons from the economically active population entered the labour force, that is individuals that were able, willing and actively looking for work’’, the NBS said.

It added that the magnitude of this increase between Q1 and Q2 2016 is smaller when compared to Q4 2015 and Q1 2016, which was an increase of 1.59m in the Labour force population.

“Within the reference period, the total number of person in full time employment (did any form of work for at least 40hours) decreased by 351,350 or 0.65% when compared to the previous quarter, and also decreased by 749,414 or 1.38% when compared to Q2 of 2015’’, the report said.

It added that the total number of people in full time employment also decreased by 351,350 persons or 0.65 percent compared to the last quarter.

In terms of unemployment and underemployment by gender, the report noted that as was the case in previous quarters, unemployment and underemployment was higher for women than men in Q4 2015.

“While 15.3% of women in the labour force (those between 15‐65 willing, able and actively working or searching for work) were unemployed in Q2 2016, another 22.4% of women in the labour force were underemployed in Q4 2015.

“ On the other hand, 11.5% of males were unemployed in Q2 2016, while another 16.4% of males in the labour force were underemployed during the same period’’, it said.
The report noted that underemployment continues to be predominant in rural areas, and that 23.8% of rural dwellers were underemployed compared to 9.6% urban of dwellers.

“Given that the nature of rural jobs is largely in agriculture, which is seasonal in nature, unemployment is more of a concern in urban areas with 17.8% unemployment in urban area compared to 11.3% in the rural areas’’, the report said, adding that the preference is more for formal white collar jobs, which are located mostly in urban centres.