• Unemployment, Underemployment Rate Hits 35.2% In 2016 Q4

At a time the Federal and State Governments say they are creating jobs in line with their campaign promises at the last general elections in 2015, latest employment data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the fourth quarter of 2016 shows that 14.2% of Nigeria’s working age population of 108.59m was unemployed by the 2016 fourth quarter, ranking her among the world’s 40 countries with the highest unemployment rate and 21st in Africa.
While fellow Africa nation- Djibouti holds the world record with 54%, it is followed by Congo, also an African country with 46.1%; followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, 41.7%. Among the lowest however are Qatar, 0.2%; Cambodia, 0.5%; Belarus and Benin Republic, Nigeria’s neighbor, have 1% jobless rate.
The NBS data further showed that unemployment rate in the 2016 Q4 rose from 13.9% in Q3 and 10.4% in the corresponding period of 2015; while underemployment rate jumped to 21% or 17.02m persons, from 19.7% or 15.91m persons in the preceding quarter; and 18.7% in the 2015 Q4.
This brought unemployment and underemployment rate in 2016 Q4 to 35.2%, meaning that a total 28.57m of Nigeria’s 108.08m, up from 105.02m in the previous quarter were either unemployed or under-employed at the end of the period.
The figure represented an increase from 27.11m, which represented 33.6% rise in the previous quarter, with the breakdown showed that while
The unemployment rate in Q4 2016, the bureau continued, was the ninth consecutive rise since Q4 2014 when it dropped to 6.4m persons from 9.7m in the preceding quarter, after which it continued a steady ascent.
The bureau noted that the country’s labour force population grew to 81.15m from 80.67m in the preceding quarter and 76.96m in the previous year.
Unemployment was higher in urban areas at 18.4%, as against 12.3%, while the problem of the rural dwellers was underemployment, which stood at 25.8% at a time it was 10.5% in the urban centres.
Measured by gender, the data shows that both unemployment and underemployment were higher in the period among the womenfolk. Unemployment among Nigerian women rose by 16.3%, compared with 12.3% for their male counterpart; while 24.2% were underemployment as against 17.9% for the male folk.
Stratified according to age, unemployment and underemployment were highest among persons within the 15-34 age bracket, at a total of 19.31m in 2016 Q4, from 18.33m in the previous quarter.
More specifically, unemployment rate among persons between the 15-24 age bracket stood at 25.2%; while underemployment was 36.5%; followed by those between 25 and 34 years at 15.4% and 22.1%.