The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Saturday said Nigeria’s Labour Productivity in the third quarter rose by 12.2% in the third quarter of 2016 to N713.8, from N638 in the previous quarter, partly helped by improvement in power throughout the period.
The figure however represented a 7.1% year-on-year drop, the bureau said, noting that despite the Q3 rise, “the overall level was low when compared to the same period last year.”
This is also believed to have been helped by 4.5% growth in the agric sector of the economy in Q3, due to the harvest season.
“A number of output and labour challenges from Q1 and Q2 indirectly impacted on labour productivity in Q3, besides the considerably low foreign direct investment and volume of private investment.
The growth in labour productivity in the third quarter, the bureau added, “implies a gradual increase in labour efficiency employed,” despite the contraction in the economy.
The report also noted that if Nigeria must hold the unemployment rate at the current level of 13.9%, its economy must generate over 2.6 million annually, lamenting that the magnitude of employment in the country has not been sufficient to meet the ever-growing labour market, hence the continuous rise in the level of unemployment in the country.
The reality, the bureau added, is that “only a few businesses are still growing and employing, while many others are shedding jobs.”
Although there was a slight increase in number of vacancies 14,005 in 2015 Q3 to 14,112 in the corresponding period of 2016, the number of applications fell significantly to 266,797 from 815.163 in 2015.
Data from the bureau also shows that the informal sector remains the biggest provider of employment opportunities, accounting for 77.3% of the new jobs created in the third quarter of 2016, while the formal sector provided the remaining 26.5% of jobs.
According to the NBS, “the reported negative growth in public sector job numbers over the last year has not been entirely surprising, as many state governments across the country have struggled to pay salaries, hence restricting the number of new intakes and in some instances placing a complete embargo on new employment into the public service.”
In another report on the Q3 2016 Nigeria online recruitment report in collaboration with Jobbermandotcom, the NBS said trade/services remained the sector to attract the most jobs, with 40.7% of applications and 73.2% of vacancies, just as the oil and gas/mining and engineering attracted the highest number of applications per vacancy at 80 and 68, which were however lower than 202 and 198 in the previous quarters.
While Lagos accounted for the highest number of applicants and vacancies, 40.6% of them were mail; while 77.5% of such applicants had 27 years as average age and educated to degree level or higher.