Recent statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Nigeria’s unemployment rate has dropped to 4.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2023.
This is in comparison to 33.3 per cent in 2020 and 5.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The report also revealed that the number of Nigerians willing to work dropped in Q1 2023.
“Underemployment rate which is the share of employed people working less than 40 hours per week and declaring themselves willing and available to work more was 13.7 per cent in Q4 2022 and 12.2 percent in Q1 2023,” the report stated.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the 2020 statistics and the current one were calculated using different methodologies, after a two-year interruption.
The country’s unemployment figure which is an outcome of the labour force survey (LFS) conducted in Nigeria, is coming two years after the last official data of 33.3 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2020 which was released in March 2021.
The NBS in a press statement issued by the Statistician General of the Federation revealed that the Bureau has enhanced its methodology of collecting labour market data through the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) guidelines.
“The results presented in this report are for the reference periods of Q4 2022 and Q1 2023.”
The LFS is a quarterly survey created with the aim of producing official national statistics on the labour force, employment and unemployment for monitoring and planning purposes.