Nigeria’s Unemployment Rate Rises Further, Hits 14.2 Per cent

This was according to unemployment report released by the statistics office on Monday night.

According to the report, the country’s unemployment rate rose from 13.9 per cent to 14.2 per cent.

The NBS report said the rate was highest for persons in the labour force between the ages of 15‐24 and 25‐34, which represents the youth population in Nigeria.

The report noted that the rate was highest for those within the ages of 15-24, rising from 25 per cent to 25.2 per cent, while the rate for the 25 to 34 age group increased from 15 per cent to 15.4 per cent.

The report also revealed that the unemployment and under-employment rates were higher for women than men in the fourth quarter of 2016.

“The economically active population increased from 108.03 million to 108.59 million, this represents a 0.5 percent increase over the previous quarter and a 3.4 per cent increase when compared to fourth quarter 2015,” NBS noted.

In Q4 2016, the labour force population increased to 81.15 million from 80.67 million in Q3 2016, representing an increase of 0.6 per cent in the labour force during the quarter.

Also, the total number of persons in full time employment decreased by 977,876 or 1.8 per cent when compared to the previous quarter, and decreased by 1.92 million or 3.5 per cent when compared to fourth quarter of 2015.

Similarly, in the fourth quarter of 2016, there were a total of 28.58 million persons in the Nigerian labour force that were either unemployed or under-employed compared to 27.12 million in the third quarter, 26.06 million in second quarter and 24.5 million in first quarter 2016.