Nigeria’s Unemployment Rate Rises 0.80% to 5.0% in Q3 2023

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday disclosed that the unemployment rate in Nigeria increased by 0.80 per cent on a month-on-month basis to 5.00 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 from 4.20 per cent in the second quarter of the year.

In its Nigeria Labour Force Survey Q3 2023, the stats office stated that the rate of unemployment among persons with post-secondary education was 7.8 per cent, while the unemployment rate among youth aged 15-24 years stood at 8.60 per cent.

It further revealed that the youth unemployment rate jumped in the period under consideration to 8.60 per cent from 7.20 per cent in the preceding quarter, as the urban unemployment rate stood at 6.00 per cent versus 5.90 per cent in Q2 of 2023, with the rural unemployment rate at 4.00 per cent, in contrast to the 2.50 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.

The NBS revealed that the labour force participation rate slowed in Q3 of 2023 to 79.50 per cent from 80.40 per cent.

It was stated that the participation rate among men was 80.90 per cent and 78.20 per cent for women.

The labour force participation rate measures the share of a country’s working-age population that is in the labour force.

The working age population refers to people aged 15 years and above who are actively engaged. The labour force is the combination of individuals who are employed and those who are unemployed.

In the report, the agency said the employment-to-population ratio was 75.60 per cent in Q3 of 2023, which is 1.50 per cent lower than the 77.10 per cent in Q2 of 2023.

The agency noted that the share of employed people in self-employment went down to 87.30 per cent from 88.00 per cent in the period under review, while informal employment shrank to 92.30 per cent from 92.70 per cent, while the time-related underemployment in Q3 2023 rising to 12.30 per cent from 11.80 per cent.