Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose from 27.1 percent 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 (Q4, 2020) that this translates to 23.19 million unemployed people.
Part of the report read, “During the reference period, the computed national lack of job rate rose from 27.1 per cent in Q2, 2020 to 33.3 per cent in Q4, 2020, while the underemployment rate decreased from 28.6 per cent to 22.8 per cent.
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“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 Q2, 2020.
“Using the international definition of unemployment, the rate was computed to be 17.5 per cent.”
However, in a related story, a former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, has said the rich in the country will also suffer if high poverty and unemployment rates are not tackled.
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Soludo said this on Tuesday in Lagos while delivering a presentation on economic restructuring at a programme, tagged ‘The Platform’, organised by Covenant Christian Centre.
He lamented that the country had not been able to diversify away from oil and gas over the years despite efforts by successive governments.
“The alternative future that we see is one without oil and where exhaustible natural resources play very little role. The future will be driven by people – our youths – and technology,” he said.
Soludo, who was recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as a member of the new Economic Advisory Council, said the next, bigger-than-oil export earner for Nigeria would potentially be its human capital.
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