NIGERIA’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WENT UP IN Q2: NBS

According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) recently revised methodology, the jobless rate in Nigeria increased to 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2023, the bureau said on Thursday.

As reported by the NBS, the statistic represents a little increase of 0.1 percent from the 4.1 percent registered in the first quarter of 2023.

According to the report, 80.4 percent of Nigeria’s working-age population took part in the poll.

It said that the jobless rate for women was 5.9% and for men it was 3.5 percent.

“Disaggregation by location, the unemployment rate was 2.5 percent in rural areas and 5.9 percent in urban areas,” the paper continued.

Regarding youth, it stated that in Q2 2023, the unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 was 7.2%.

It continued by saying that 88% of Nigerians in employment were predominantly self-employed, with the other 12% primarily working as employees. It also added that more women than males are self-employed.

According to the report, 91.0 percent of working women and 85.2 percent of working men were self-employed.

The percentage of workers in the unorganized sector with informal jobs is known as the informal employment rate.

The percentage of unofficial employment was 92.7 percent.

The report stated, “Like the previous two quarters, the rate of women in informal employment is higher than that of men. Although the informality rate is high across all age groups, younger persons (15-24), and persons above 65 years were more informally employed.

“The rate of informal employment among people living in rural areas is 97.3 percent while the urban informality rate is estimated at 88 percent.

Educational qualification seems to be negatively associated with informality as findings show that persons with higher qualifications are less likely to be in informal employment. 99.6 percent of people with no formal education were found to be in informal employment.”