By Abiola Olawale
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that about 23.19 million Nigerians were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2020, accounting for one in every three Nigerians without a job.
According to the latest report released by the NBS on Monday titled ‘Labour Force Statistics, Unemployment and Under Employment – Q4 2020’, 33.3% of the population in Nigeria is unemployed.
The report shows that unemployment has risen by nearly 400 percent since 2015, spiking from 6.75 percent in the third quarter of 2015 to 33.3% in the last quarter in 2020.
According to the NBS, the working-age population rose from 116.88 million in the second quarter of 2020 to 122.05 million people in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Similarly, the NBS reported that the unemployment rate increased from the 21.77 million people recorded in the second quarter of 2020, to 23.19 million people in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The report also revealed that Nigeria has a huge population of young people between the age of 15-34 years, adding that the unemployment rate within this age group rose to 42.5 percent in Q4 of 2020, from 34.9 percent in Q2 2020.
The NBS data reported that the number of people employed, that is, people with jobs, was 46.49 million people during the period in review. The report further disclosed that about 30.58 million people were full-time employed, as regards to the 40+ hours per week requisite, while about 15.92 million people fall under the under-employed category, which means people working between 20-29 hours per week.
The NBS data also showed that underemployment rate declined from 28.6% in Q2 2020 to 21.0% in Q4 2020.
Underemployment for young Nigerians declined to 21.0 percent in Q4 of 2020, from 28.2 percent recorded in Q2 of 2020.
For Q4 2020, the rate of unemployment among young people (15-34years) increased to 34.5%, from 28.2% recorded in Q2 2020. Among urban dwellers, the rate of unemployment also increased from 26.4 percent recorded in Q2 2020 to 31.3 percent in Q4 2020.
The report also disclosed that Imo State recorded the highest rate of unemployment with 56.6% in the fourth quarter of 2020. Adamawa State and Cross River State followed with 54.9% and 53.7% rate of unemployment respectively.
However, Osun State recorded the lowest rate of unemployment with 11.7%, in the fourth quarter of 2020.
For the underemployment category, Benue State recorded the highest rate with 43.5% while Lagos State recorded the lowest underemployment rate with 4.5% rate in the fourth quarter of 2020.
