Unemployment: 7.5m Nigerians ‘absolutely doing nothing’ – NBS

Unemployment: 7.5m Nigerians ‘absolutely doing nothing’ – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said 7.5million Nigerians were left doing nothing between January 2016 and December 30, 2017.

The bureau stated this in “Labour Force Statistics Vol. 2: Employment by Sector Report,” released on Sunday in Abuja.

According to NBS, out of the country’s labour population of 85.1 million as reflected in the third quarter of 2017 (Q3), 77.55 million are engaged in some sort of economic activity for at least an hour a week, (8.46 million-1-19 hours; 18.02 million-20-39 hours; 51.06million-above 40 hours), while 7.53 million are doing absolutely nothing.

It reported that among the 77.55 million labour population who were engaged in some extent of economic activity, 38.24% of them or 29.66 million were self-employed engaged in farming/agriculture, and 27,93% or 21.66 million were self-employed in non- farming/agriculture sectors.

“A total of 19.72 million were working for pay or wage, which was equivalent to 25.42% of the total workers in 2017 Q3. Paid apprentices and unpaid house workers constituted 7.30% and 1.11% of the total working force engaged for at last one hour a week.

The stats office also stated that of a total employed (full time employed and underemployed which is 20 and above working hours a week) of 69.09 million, 17.88million or 25.88% work for pay/ wage, 45.47 million or 65.82% are self-employed working in agriculture (25.47 million or 36.87%) and non-agriculture related activities (20.0 million or 28.95%), 779,002 or 1.13% are paid apprentice and 4.95 million or 7.17% are unpaid house workers.

It also stated further that more than half of the total workers in Nigeria (51.06 million or 65.84% of total) worked full-time, or 40 hours per week.

NBS added that among all the full-time workers, 18.86 million or 24.31% of total workers were engaged in self-employment farming/agriculture.

It added that 15.02 million or 19.36 of total were self-employed in non- farming/agriculture work and 14.10 million or 25.42% of total are working for pay/wage. 23.25% and 10.91% of total workers were participating in 20-39 hours work per week and 1-19 hours work per week respectively.

It added that Mining and Quarrying, Information and Communication, and Real Estate contributed to sizable shares of nominal GDP (11.17%, 8.69%, and 7.52% respectively) in 2017 Q3, while they only provided limited employment (0.17%, 0.55%, and 0.09% respectively).

The bureau stated further that males worked full-time than female, while a higher percentage of female worked part-time between 20-39 hours and below 20 hours per week.

“The absolute number of male full-time workers (34.85 million) was more than twice the number of female full-time workers (16.21 million) in the third quarter of 2017.

“A larger percentage of males to females were self-employed in farming/agriculture work, while a larger percentage of females were self-employed in non-farming/agriculture work. Agriculture dominated both female and male labour markets.