7.5m Nigerians jobless since 2016 – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said 7.5 million Nigerians were out of job between January 2016 and December 30, 2017.

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

According to NBS, out of the country’s labour population of 85.1 million as reflected in the third quarter (Q3) of 2017, 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; 51.06 million-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 form of economic activity, 38.24 per cent of them or 29.66 million were self-employed engaged in farming/agriculture, and 27,93 per cent 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 per cent of the total workers in 2017 Q3. Paid apprentices and unpaid house workers constituted 7.30 per cent and 1.11 per cent of the total workforce engaged for at least one hour a week.

The statistics 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, 17.88 million or 25.88 per cent work for pay/wage, 45.47 million or 65.82 per cent are self-employed working in agriculture (25.47 million or 36.87 per cent) and non-agriculture related activities (20 million or 28.95 per cent), 779,002 or 1.13 per cent are paid apprentice and 4.95 million or 7.17 per cent are unpaid houseworkers