Nigeria’s unemployment rate from the first quarter of 2023, that is from January to March, 2023, is down to 4.1 percent.
This is the latest news from the National Bureau of Statistics in a report it calls Nigeria Labour Force Statistics Report.
It also says for the fourth quarter of last year, that is between September and December, 2022, the unemployment rate was 5.1 percent.
Now here is an important information you must know: the NBS changed its methodology of making these calculations as it now uses market data through the Nigeria Labour Force Survey.
According to the NBS, the revised methodology defines employed persons as those working for pay or profit and who worked for at least one hour in the last 7 days.
It also considers underemployed persons as those working less than 40 hours per week and declaring themselves willing and available to work more.
And using this method, the NBS says about three-quarters of working-age Nigerians were employed in the last quarter of 2022 and that’s about – 73.6%
It adds that for the first quarter of 2023, about 76.7% were employed indicating that most people were engaged in some type of job for at least one hour in a week, for pay or profit.
With the old method of calculations, Nigeria’s unemployment rate was about 33 percent.
Let’s also inform you that, the NBS says this news method is in line with International Labour Organisation guidelines and it collaborated with the World Bank for this data.
