Pascal Arogorn Ibe
Nigeria ’ s unemployment rate rose from 27. 1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 to 33. 3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed on Monday .
The NBS stated in its report on ‘ Labour force Statistics : Unemployment and underemployment report – Abridged labour force survey under COVID – 19 ( Q 4, 2020) that this translates to 23. 19 million unemployed people.
Part of the report read , “ During the reference period , the computed national unemployment rate rose from 27. 1 per cent in Q 2, 2020 to 33. 3 per cent in Q 4, 2020, while the underemployment rate decreased from 28. 6 per cent to 22. 8 per cent .
“ A combination of both the unemployment and underemployment rate for the reference period gave a figure of 56. 1 per cent .
“ This means that 33. 3 per cent of the labour force in Nigeria or 23, 187, 389 persons either did nothing or worked for less than 20 hours a week, making them unemployed by our definition in Nigeria .
“ This is an additional 1, 422, 772 persons from the number in that category in Q 2, 2020.
“ Using the international definition of unemployment , the rate was computed to be 17. 5 per cent . ”
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