A report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS, says more than 1.4m Nigerians have been rendered unemployed since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office about six months ago.
According to the Bureau in its third quarter report on unemployment and underemployment, it was revealed that unemployment in the country rose by more than 1.4m between June 1 to September 30.
The report said, “In Q3 2015, the labour force population, that is those within the working age population willing, able and actively looking for work, increased to 75.9 million from 74.0 million in Q2 2015, representing an increase in the labour force by 2.60%,”
“This means 1,929,800 economically active persons within 15‐64 entered the labour force i.e. were able and willing and actively looking for work between July 1 and September 30 2015.
“Within the same period, the number of unemployed in the labour force, increased by 1,454,620 (529,923 in Q2) persons between Q2 2015 and Q3 2015 resulting in an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.9% in Q3 2015 from 8.2% in Q2 2015 from 7.5% in Q1 2015.”
The report noted that this rise is the fourth consecutive rise in the unemployment rate since Q3 2014, with the number of unemployed Nigerians rising to 7.5m.
NBS further revealed that in Q3 2015, about 427,000 new online jobs were created which were unable to meet the over 1.9m new entrants into the labour market.
During the quarter under review, the rate of underemployed, those working but doing largely menial work or jobs not commensurate with their qualifications or not fully engaged and merely working for few hours, however witness a decrease by 365,593.
Underemployment rate fell to 17.4 percent in Q3 2015(13.2m) from 18.3 percent (13.5m) in Q2 2015, from 16.6 percent (12.2m) in Q1 2015. More females are unemployed in Nigeria According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 201 million people globally are unemployed, with Nigeria being responsible for 4 percent of that global demographic.
The highest unemployment rate in the world is recorded in Djibouti (54%), Congo(46%), Bosnia and Herzegovinian(43%), Haiti (40%) and Kosovo(35%). The lowest are found in Qatar (0.2%), Cambodia (0.3%), Belarus (0.5%), Thailand (0.8%), Benin (1.0%), Laos (1.40%) and Guinea Bissau (1.80%).
With unemployment rate of 9.9 percent in Q3 2015, Nigeria has better rating when compared with 67 countries. Nigeria is, however, worse than 113 countries, including 21 African countries that have their rates lower than 9.9 percent.
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