The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, yesterday said the country’s unemployment rate rose to 8.2 per cent in the second quarter (Q2) of this year, up from 7.5 per cent rate recorded in the preceding quarter.
This represents a third consecutive rise in unemployment rate since Q3, 2014.
It also stated that the economically active population or working age, that is, persons within ages 15, 64, increased to 103.5 million in the second quarter (Q2), up from 102.8 million in the first quarter.
In addition, the Bureau disclosed that the labour force population, comprising those within the working age, willing, able and actively looking for work, increased to 74.0 million in Q2 from 73.4 million in Q1, indicating an increase in the labour force by 0.81 per cent.
This means that 574,498 economically active persons within 1564 entered the labour force during the quarter under review.
Giving a comprehensive analysis of the country’s jobs trends in its Unemployment/ Under Employment Watch, the statistics producing agency stated that within the same period, the total number in full employment, or those that did something for at least 40 hours weekly decreased by 1,317,700 or 2.37 per cent.
The NBS attributed the decline in the number of full employment or those working less than 40 hours despite a rise in the labour force to job losses or previously fully employed persons choosing or being forced to work part time or in underemployment.
It clarified further that with an economically active or working age population of 103.5 million and labour force population of 74.0 million, the rate indicated that 29.5 million persons within the economically active or working age population decided not to work for various reasons in Q2, compared to 29.3 million in the preceding quarter of this year.
The Bureau stated: “The number of underemployed in the labour force during the review quarter however, increased by 1,362,274 or 11.16 per cent resulting in an increase in the underemployment rate to 18.3 per cent (13.5mn) in Q2 2015, from 16.6 per cent (12.2mn) in Q1 2015.
“Accordingly, there were a total of 19.6 million people between ages 1565 either unemployed or underemployed in the labour force in Q2 2015, compared to 17.7 million in Q1 2015.”
On the unemployment and underemployment rates by age, the Bureau reported that 48.7 per cent of Nigerians in the labour force aged 1524 were either unemployed or underemployed compared to 44.3 per cent in Q1, while another 28.4 per cent aged 2534 were either unemployed or underemployed in Q2 compared to 25.9 per cent in the preceding quarter.
A further decomposition of the report on gender basis showed that while 9.6 per cent of women in the labour force were unemployed in Q2, another 21.6 per cent were underemployed.
On the other hand, 6.9 per cent of males were unemployed in the quarter under review compared to 15.4 per cent of underemployed.
The urban and rural unemployment and underemployment categorisation showed that underemployment continued to be more of a rural phenomenon with 22.1 per cent underemployment and 7.4 per cent unemployment rates.
On the other hands, the rate of unemployment and underemployment in urban areas stood at 10.1 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively in Q2, 2015.
It would be recalled that the Bureau had last September inaugurated a Committee of experts and stakeholders to review the definition and methodology applied in computing unemployment statistics in the country.
The initiative was designed to assess the current definition of unemployment in the context of Nigeria, and by so doing, recommend a new appropriate definition for computing unemployment rate and other labour-related indicators in line with internationally agreed standards as well as satisfying local conditions
On historical model of labour force computation, the NBS defined the unemployed as the proportion of the labour force that did no work at all or worked less than 40 hours a week.
The old definition however created a major challenge, as those who work for less than 40 hours, were classified as unemployed.
The International Labour Organisation, ILO, uses an hour a week as the benchmark for employment, as opposed to 40 hours used by the Bureau.
