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Nigeria’s unemployment rate increased to 4.2% in the second quarter of 2023, retaining the worrying outlook of the country’s workforce. While the increase from 4.1% in the previous quarter seems marginal, a closer look reveals the burden falls disproportionately on women and young people.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report released on Thursday revealed that the overall workforce participation remains high at 80.4%.
It revealed that while women grappled with a significantly higher unemployment rate of 5.9%, men had a rate of 3.5%. The report further shows that urban areas faced a jobless rate of 5.9% compared to just 2.5% in rural areas. Youth have unemployment among 15-24-year-olds reaching 7.2%.
The report also sheds light on the nature of employment in Nigeria. Self-employment takes the fore, with 88% of employed Nigerians working for themselves. Women lead the charge in this category, constituting 91.0% of self-employed workers compared to 85.2% of men.
Meanwhile, 92.7% of employed Nigerians work in the informal sector.
The report added, “Like the previous two quarters, the rate of women in informal employment is higher than that of men. Although the informality rate is high across all age groups, younger persons (15-24), and persons above 65 years were more informally employed.
“The rate of informal employment among people living in rural areas is 97.3 percent while the urban informality rate is estimated at 88 percent.
“Educational qualification seems to be negatively associated with informality as findings show that persons with higher qualifications are less likely to be in informal employment. 99.6 percent of people with no formal education were found to be in informal employment.”
