BREAKING: 23.1 Million Nigerians Jobless As Unemployment Rate Hits 33.3%

Nigeria’s unemployment rate has risen to 33.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020 representing 23.18 million, the worst in the country’s history.

This is based on the Q4 2020 Unemployment and Underemployment report released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

“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,” the NBS said.

Underemployment  rate stood at 22.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 28.6 per cent in the second quarter.

The NBS said total unemployment and underemployment rate stood at 40 per cent in Q4 2020 from 35.2 per cent in Q2 2020.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate had hit a record 27.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020, a rise which surpassed earlier labour force report of 23.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2018.

In 2017, the country’s unemployment rate was 18.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 according to the bureau.

The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association had warned that the rate of unemployment in Nigeria may rise to 33.5 per cent.

NBS said, the number of persons in the labour force that is people within ages 15 to 64, who are able and willing to work was estimated to be 69,675,468.

This is 13.22 per cent less than the number of persons in Q2, 2020.

Of this number, those within the age bracket of 25 to 34 were highest, with 20 09 million or 28.34 per cent of the labour force.

This is the estimated number of persons within the economically active population or working population, that are available and willing to work.

This implies that as of Q4 2020, only 57.09 per cent of Nigeria’s economically active population are in the labour force.