The unemployment rate in Nigeria increased to 5.0 percent in the third quarter of 2023, according to a recent Labour Force Survey. The previous quarter’s figure was 4.2 percent. The National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) data also showed a decrease in the labour force participation rate, from 80.4 percent in Q2 to 79.5 percent in Q3. Nigeria’s highest-ever recorded unemployment rate was 33.3 percent recorded in Q4 2020, which subsequently fell to 4.1 percent in Q1 2023 due to the adoption of a new methodology by NBS.

The report also detailed a drop in the employment-to-population ratio to 75.6 percent in Q3, a decline of 1.5 percent from Q2. A total of 87.3 percent of workers were reported as self-employed in Q3, while the wage employment rate was 12.7 percent. The rate of unemployment was highest among those with post-secondary education and youth aged 15-24 years, at 7.8 and 8.6 percent respectively. Furthermore, the urban unemployment rate was reported at 6.0 percent in Q3, slightly higher than Q2.

The most significant sector affected by underemployment was reported to be subsistence agriculture, and the biggest sufferers of unemployment were those categorized as ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’ (NEET), whose percentage stood at 13.7 percent in Q3. The data also highlighted a high rate of informal employment at 92.3 percent in Q3, marginally lower than the 92.7 percent recorded in Q2 2023.

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