Nigeria’s unemployment rate has dropped from 5.3 per cent in the first quarter 2024 to 4.3 per cent in the second quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Unemployment rate is defined by NBS as the share of the labour force (the combination of unemployed and employed people) who are not employed but actively searching and are available for work.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in 2023, announced that it has adopted a methology in calculating unemployment rate. The new approach, it said aligns with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) guidelines.
Under the new NBS methodology, anyone who has not worked in the past seven days, have been looking for work in the past four weeks, and is ready to start work; you are considered unemployed.
Since it was released, the labour report was met with mixed reactions. Some analysts have questioned the accuracy of the new methodology, arguing that it may have led to an underestimation of the true level of unemployment in Nigeria.
This new drop as reported by NBS may not be unconnected with an increasing number of people moving into informal employment as they search for survival in the face of heightened economic challenge that has led to many firms shutting down.
According to the NBS 93 per cent of the citizens are in informal employment.
The Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) report 2024 released by the NBS also shows that the unemployment rate among youth aged (15-24 years) dropped from 8.4 per cent in Q1 2024 to 6.5 per cent in Q2 2024, while unemployment rate among persons with secondary education was 7.6 per cent in Q2 2024.
It said the combined unemployment rate and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) decreased to 13 per cent in Q2 2024 from 15.3 per cent in Q1 2023.
The NBS said the labour force participation rate among the working-age population increased to 79.5 per cent in Q2 2024 from 77.3 per cent in Q1 2024.
According to the report, Employment-to-population ratio was 76.1 per cent in Q2 2024. This is an increase of 2.9 per cent compared to 73.2 per cent in Q1 2024. Year on year comparison shows a slight decrease from Q2 2023 at 77.1 per cent.
It said 3.7 per cent of the working-age population was in subsistence agriculture in Q2 2024, while the percentage of youth Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET Rate) was 12.5 per cent. Similar to previous quarters.
The report also shows that the proportion of persons in self-employment in Q2 2024 was 85.6 per cent.
Survey findings reveal a decrease in the share of employed persons primarily engaged as employees between Q2 2024 (14.4 per cent) and Q1 2023 (16.0 per cent).
It also shows that self-employment rate is higher among females 88.3 per cent while males was 82.2 per cent reveals that self-employed persons are more in rural areas at 94.3 per cent as against 79.7 per cent in urban centres.