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The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday released Nigeria's labour force statistics for the fourth quarter of 2020, showing the country's unemployment rate was 33.3 per cent, up from 27.1 per cent reported in Q2 2020, the last unemployment data reported by the agency.

According to the NBS, the total number of unemployed people in Nigeria increased from 21.8 million in Q2 2020 to 23.2 million in Q4 of last year. This means an additional 1.4 million people became unemployed in the second half of 2020.

The total number of people employed in the reference period was 46.5 million, 20.6 per cent less than the people in employment in Q2 2020. Of the number of the employed at the end of last year, 30.6 million were in full-time employment, while 15.9 were under-employed.

The latest report shows the underemployment rate declined from 28.6 per cent to 22.8 per cent. A combination of both the unemployment and underemployment rates for the reference period gave a figure of 56.1 per cent.  

The NBS classifies people who are unemployed as those who did nothing at all or worked too few hours (under 20 hours a week) during the reference period. The rate of unemployment is calculated as a percentage of the number of unemployed persons in the labour force. The underemployed, however, are those who work less than full-time hours – which are an average of 40 hours – or those engaged in activities that under-utilise their skills, time and educational qualifications.

The country’s economically active or working-age population – those between ages 15 and 64 – increased by 4.3 per cent from 116.9 million in Q2 2020 to 122.1 million in Q4 2020, while the number of people in the labour force – people who are able and willing to work – decreased by 13.2 per cent to 69.7 million in the reference period, compared to 80.3 million recorded in the second quarter of 2020.

Nigeria's unemployment rate, which was 6.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014, has been consistently rising since that period, accelerating to 9.9 per cent in Q3 2015. By Q3 2018, the unemployment report figure had risen to 23.1 per cent. After a hiatus of not reporting unemployment figures, the statistics agency released labour force statistics in Q2 of last year, following increasing demand for the data, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the latest NBS report, youth unemployment rate – the unemployment rate among young people (aged 15-34) – jumped from 34.9 per cent in Q2 2020 to 42.5 per cent in Q4 2020.