Nigeria is now official in recession as Bureau of Statistics released its worst report in years on the unemployment and underemployment rate in the country - with 4,580,602 out of job -- 2.6m lost their jobs in the second quarter of 2016. Over 2,500 businesses have closed shops since the emergence of this Buhari's government and this has led to serious unemployment in the country.
“The number of underemployed in the labour force (those working but doing menial jobs not commensurate with their qualifications or those not engaged in fulltime work and merely working for few hours) increased by 392,390 or 2.61%, resulting in an increase in the underemployment rate to 19.3 % (15.4million persons) in Q2 2016 from 19.1% (15,02 million persons) in Q1 2016, 18.7% (14.42 million persons) in Q4 2015, from 17.4% (13.2 million persons) in Q3 2015 and 18.3% (13.5 million persons) in Q2 2015.
“During the reference period, the number of unemployed in the labour force, increased by 1,158,700 persons, resulting in an increase in the national unemployment rate to 13.3% in Q2 2016 from 12.1 in Q1 2016, 10.4% in Q4 2015 from 9.9% in Q3 2015 and from 8.2% in Q2 2015. In view of this, there were a total of 26.06 million persons in the Nigerian labour force in Q2 2016, that were either unemployed or underemployed compared to compared to 24.5 million in Q1 2016 and 22.6 million in Q4 2015.
“As has been the case, unemployment and underemployment was highest for persons in the labour force between the ages of 15‐24 and 25‐34, which represents the youth population in the labour force.
“The unemployment rate was highest for those within the ages of 15‐24 (24.0% in Q2 2016, 21.5% in Q1 2016, 19.0% in Q4 2015 and 17.8% in Q3 2015), while the underemployment rate for the same age group declined slightly to 34.2% in Q2 2016 from 34.6 in Q1 2016, 34.5% in Q4 2015 and 31.8% in Q3 2015.
“For the 25‐34 age group, the unemployment rate also increased from 19.9% in Q1 2016 to 20.5% in Q2 2016, up from 11.4% in Q4 from 10.8% in Q3 2015 from 8.9% in Q2 2015 and 8.2% in Q1 2015, while underemployment rose to 19.9% in Q4 from 18.5% in Q3 2015, 19.5% in Q2 and 17.7% in Q1 2015. READ ALSO: Electricity: Dangote plans to generate 12,000mw by 2018
“Accordingly, 58.3% of Nigerians in the labour force (not entire population), aged 15‐24 were either unemployed or underemployed in Q2 2016 compared to 56.1% in Q1 2016, 53.5% in Q4 2015, 49.6% in Q3 2015 and 48.7% in Q2 2015. Of persons aged between the ages of 25 and 34, 35.1% of that group were either unemployed or underemployed compared32.8% in Q1 2016, 31.3% in Q4 2015 to 29.3% in Q3, 28.4% and 25.9% in Q2 2015.
“Consequently, out of a total youth labour force population of 39.6million (representing 49.5% of total labour force in Nigeria of 79.9mn), a total of 17.6million of them were either unemployed or underemployed in Q2 2016. (Important to note that there is a technical distinction between not working and unemployed.
“A youth may not be working but may not necessarily be unemployed. A youth not working will only be termed unemployed if he is willing and able to work and actively looking for work within the review period. It is also important to note distinction between unemployed and underemployed.
“You are unemployed if you do nothing at all and underemployed if you still manage to do something for some money for at least 20 hours a week but is menial and not fully engaging relative to your skills, time and qualifications.”
It further added: “In Q2 2016, the labour force population (i.e those within the working age population willing, able and actively looking for work) increased to 79.9 million from 78.5 million in Q1 2016, representing an increase of 1.78% in the labour force during the quarter.
“This means 1.39 million persons from the economically active population entered the labour force, that is individuals that were able, willing and actively looking for work. “This magnitude of this increase between Q1 and Q2 2016 is smaller when compared to Q4 2015 and Q12016, which was an increase of 1.59m in the Labour force population.
“Within the reference period, the total number of person in full time employment (did any form of work for at least 40hours) decreased by 351,350 or 0.65% when compared to the previous quarter, and also decreased by 749,414 or 1.38% when compared to Q2 of 2015.”
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