Lack of jobs put over 23 million Nigerians into unemployment market

- Nigeria's unemployment figure rises by 33.3%, as 23 million Nigerians now unemployed according to NSE

- Imo State, Adamawa, and Cross River State ranked high as the states with the highest unemployment rate

- Nigerians are now becoming entrepreneurs to escape the unemployment market as government struggle to provide jobs

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Unemployment has risen to its highest under President Muhammadu Buhari's administration, as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put the unemployment rate at 33.3% as of the end of 2020. This figure highlights the impact of COVID-19 on Nigerians last year.

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In the second quarter of 2020, Nigeria's unemployment rate was 27.1%, but six months later, the number of Nigerians unemployed rose to 23,187,389. Note that during the second and third quarter of last year, Nigeria's economy had slipped into recession.

During the period under review, the NSE data stated that the rate of underemployed Nigerians dropped from the 2020 second-quarter figure of 28.6% to 22.8% in the fourth quarter of the same year, which is the same period Nigeria exited recession with 0.11%.

The statistics agency estimated that the active or working-age population in Q4, 2020 was 122,049,400, comprising of 15 to 64 years of age. The report stated that seven days to the survey of the unemployment rate in Nigeria, 12,160,178 Nigerians were not working.

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For the state that topped the unemployment table, NSE stated that Imo State recorded the highest:

"Under State disaggregation, Imo State reported the highest rate of unemployment with 56.6%, this was followed Adamawa and Cross River States with 54.9% and 53.7% respectively. The State with the lowest rate was Osun in the South-West with 11.7%.

"For underemployment, the state which recorded the highest rate was Benue with 43.5%, while Lagos State recorded the lowest underemployment rate, with 4.5% in Q4, 2020."

As of the second quarter of 2020, there were 60.42 million males in the working population, against 61.62 million women in the working population. But there was 39.52 million male in the labour force, while females accounted for 30.15 million.

Meanwhile, as unemployment continues to rise in Nigeria, Legit.ng had earlier reported how individuals like Abisola Odebode have been taking the bull by the horn to create a job for themselves and other unemployed Nigerians.

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Odebode had graduated from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in 2015, but couldn't get a job in the private sector as a mechanical engineer. He went into paint production and has since been an employer of labour.

Fakoyejo Olalekan is a Business and Financial Journalist with over three years of experience in covering finance and business activities within Nigeria and offshore. Prior to joining Legit.ng, he worked at Nairametrics where he wrote financial and investment analysis articles. Olalekan is a resourceful and result-driven journalist with a track record for conducting extensive research and interviews to produce articles that provide different perspectives to market activities.

Source: Legit.ng