Nigeria Says Unemployment Rose Marginally To 4.2% In Second Quarter 2023

The country’s unemployment rate increased marginally to 4.2 percent the second quarter of the year (Q2 2023) compared to 4.1 per cent in the preceding quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

According to the Q2 2023 Nigerian Labour Force Survey (NLFS), which was released by Nigeria’s Bureau of Statistics, the rate of unemployment among persons with post-secondary education was 8 percent in Q2 2023.

Unemployment rate among youths aged (15-24 years) in Q2 2023 was 7.2 percent, compared to 6.9 percent in Q1 2023, the NBS stated.

Urban unemployment was 5.9 percent in Q2 compared with 5.4 per cent in Q1 while unemployment in the rural areas was 2.5 percent, down from the 2.9 percent recorded in the preceding quarter.

The share of those in wage employment was 12.0 percent in Q2, indicating a marginal increase from the 11.08 percent recorded in Q1.

The NBS said the rate of informal employment, which is the share of employed persons working in the informal sector and informal employment (including agriculture) stood at 92.7 percent, a slight increase from 92.6 percent in Q1.

The rate of informal employment among people living in rural areas stood at 97.3 percent while urban informal employment was estimated at 88 percent.

Essentially, the labour force participation rate stood at 80.4 percent in Q2 2023, which was higher than 79.9 percent in the preceding quarter.

The NBS also stated that the participation rate of men in the labour force under the reviewed period stood at 82.1 percent while for women records stood at 78.8 percent.

It said the participation rate was higher in the rural areas with 82.6 percent, while the urban areas recorded 78.4 percent, indicating that most people were engaged in some form of work either for pay or profit, during the reference period.

James Emejo in Abuja

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