By Tony Obiechina, ABUJA
Nigeria’s unemployment situation seems to be taking a downwards trend, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Abuja.
The data, released on Wednesday showed that the rate of unemployment increased tremendously from 18.8 per cent in third quarter of 2017 to 23.1 percentage in third quarter of 2018.
According to the data, the economically active or working age population (15 – 64 years of age) increased from 111.1 million in Q3, 2017 to 115.5million in Q3, 2018.
Similarly, the number of persons in the labour force (i.e. people who are able and willing to work increased from 75.94 million in Q3 2015 to 80.66 million in Q3 2016 to 85.1 million in Q3,2017 to 90.5million in Q3, 2018.
Summary of the date reads:
“The total number of people in employment (i.e with jobs) increased from 68.4 million in Q3 2015, to 68.72 million in Q3 2016, to 69.09 million in Q3 2017 and 69.54 million in Q3 2018.
“The total number of people in full-time employment (at least 40 hours a week) increased from 51.1 million in Q3 2017 to 51.3 million in Q3, 2018.
“The total number of people in part-time employment (or underemployment) decreased from 13.20 million in Q3 2015 to 11.19 million in Q3 2016 but increased to 18.02 million in Q3 2017 and to 18.21 million in Q3 2018.
“The total number of people classified as unemployed, which means they did nothing at all or worked too few hours (under 20 hours a week) to be classified as employed increased from 17.6 million in Q4 2017 to 20.9 million in Q3 2018.
“Of the 20.9 million persons classified as unemployed as at Q3 2018 11.1 million did some form of work but for too few hours a week (under 20 hours) to be officially classified as employed while 9.7 million did absolutely nothing.
“Of the 9.7 million unemployed that did absolutely nothing as at Q3 2018, 90.1% of them or 8.77 million were reported to be unemployed and doing nothing because they were first time job seekers and have never worked before. On the other hand, 9.9million 0r 0.9% of the 9.7 million that were unemployed and doing nothing at all reported they were unemployed and did nothing at all because they were previously employed but lost their jobs at some point in the past which is why they were unemployed.
“Of the 9.7 million that were unemployed and did nothing at all, 35.0% or 3.4 million have been unemployed and did nothing at all for less than a year, 17.2% or 1.6 million for a year, 15.7% or 1.5 million had been unemployed and did nothing for 2 years, and the remaining 32.1% or 3.1 million unemployed persons had been unemployed doing nothing for 3 and above years.
“The unemployment rate accordingly, increased from 18.8% in Q3 2017 to 23.1% in Q3, 2018”.
Commenting on the development, a univesity lecturer, Prof Uche Uwaleke said the growing unemployment figure was a proof that growth in the economy is still weak and not inclusive.
According to him, the oil sector which is the chief driver of Nigeria’s economy, is not employment elastic, pointing out that ” there is the need to stimulate growth in sectors that have strong linkages to job creation such as manufacturing, construction, ICT and Agriculture”.
Uwaleke, who is the head of Banking & Finance Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi said, “this will entail massive investments in infrastructure and putting in place measures to ensure that these sectors are able to access credits at single digit interest rate”.
“In view of the huge number of youths who enter into the labour market each year, the government should focus on creating the right environment including investing in entrepreneurial education and skills acquisition for the high unemployment rate to go down”, he argued.
