BEVERLY HILLS, December 22, (THEWILL) – The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that a total number of 4.07 million Nigerians became unemployed between January and September of 2017.
The bureau made this known an analysis of the unemployment report for the third quarter released on Friday adding that the number of Nigerians that became unemployed rose from 11.92 million in the first quarter of this year to 13.58 million and 15.99 million in the second and third quarters respectively.
It declared that the increasing unemployment and underemployment rates show that although Nigeria is officially out of recession, the domestic labour market is still fragile while economic growths in the past two quarters have not been strong enough to provide employment in Nigeria’s domestic labor market.
NBS also revealed that between the second quarter and third quarter, the number of economically active or working age population (15 – 64 years of age) increased from 110.3 million to 111.1 million.
“The labour force population increased from 83.9 million in Q2 2017 to 85.1 million in Q3 2017. The total number of people in full-time employment (at least 40 hours a week) declined from 52.7 million in Q2 2017 to 51.1 million in Q3 2017,” the report stated.
“The unemployment rate increased from 14.2 per cent in Q4 2016 to 16.2 per cent in Q2 2017 and 18.8 per cent in Q3 2017.
“The number of people within the labor force who are unemployed or underemployed increased from 13.6 million and 17.7 million respectively in Q2 2017, to 15.9 million and 18.0 million in Q3 2017.
“Total unemployment and underemployment combined increased from 37.2 per cent in the previous quarter to 40 per cent in Q3 2017.”
