After a revised methodology of unemployment rate in August, this year, which was heavily condemned by stakeholders, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), yesterday, announced 4.2 per cent as the new unemployment rate for Q2 of 2023, representing a one percentage rise from 4.1 recorded in Q1 2023.
It also announced that the unemployment rate by sex among men was 3.5 per cent and among women was 5.9 per cent in Q2 2023. This was contained in a statement obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website.
Disaggregating by location, the agency said that the unemployment rate was 5.9 per cent in urban areas and 2.5 per cent in rural areas.
Focusing on young people, the unemployment rate for people between 15 and 24-year-old was 7.2 per cent in Q2 2023.
In terms of educational attainment, the unemployment rate was 8.0 per cent for those with post-secondary education, 5.4 per cent for those with upper secondary education, 3.7 per cent for those with lower secondary education, 3.0 per cent for those with primary education, and 2.5 per cent for those with no formal education.
“Time-related underemployment is one aspect of labour underutilisation. The timerelated underemployment rate is defined as the share of employed people who are working less than 40 hours per week, but who would be willing and available to work more.
In Q2 2023, the share of employed Nigerians that were underemployed was 11.8 per cent.
In Q1 2023, the share of employed Nigerians that were underemployed was 12.2 per cent” the document, said NBS put the informal employment rate in Q2 at 92.7 per cent adding that the rate of women in informal employment is higher than that of men in the two previous results.
“Informal employment in Nigeria and other developing countries seems to be very high when compared to the developed countries. The rate of informal employment is the share of employed persons in the informal sector and informal employment. The informal employment rate in Q2 2023 was 92.7 per cent. Like the previous two quarters, the rate of women in informal employment is higher than that of men. Although the informality rate is high across all age groups, younger persons (15-24), and persons above 65 years were more informally employed.
“The rate of informal employment among people living in rural areas is 97.3 per cent while the urban informality rate is estimated at 88 per cent. Educational qualification seems to be negatively associated with informality as findings show that persons with higher qualifications are less likely to be in informal employment. 99.6 per cent of people with no formal education were found to be in informal employment.
Recall that in August, this year, NBS revised the methodology in surveying the rate of employment.
Consequently, the revision dropped the the unemployment rate from 33 per cent to 4.1 in the Q1 2023.
Defending the rate which attracted unsavoury comments from stakeholders, Statistician General of the Federation (SG), Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran, said that the methodology used in the survey was in accordance with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) new guidelines.
