NBS: 1.4m became unemployed under Buhari

More than 1.4 million Nigerians have fallen into the unemployed bracket since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In its third quarter report of unemployment and underemployment, the bureau revealed that the number of unemployed people in the country rose by more than 1.4 million in Buhari’s first four months in office (June 1 to September 30).

“In Q3 2015, the labour force population (i.e those within the working age population willing, able and actively looking for work) increased to 75.9 million from 74.0 million in Q2 2015, representing an increase in the labour force by 2.60%,” the report said.

“This means 1,929,800 economically active persons within 15‐64 entered the labour force i.e. were able and willing and actively looking for work between July 1 and September 30 2015.

“Within the same period, the number of unemployed in the labour force, increased by 1,454,620 (529,923 in Q2) persons between Q2 2015 and Q3 2015 resulting in an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.9% in Q3 2015 from 8.2% in Q2 2015 from 7.5% in Q1 2015.”

This is the fourth consecutive rise in the unemployment rate since Q3 2014, with the number of unemployed Nigerians rising to 7.5 million.

The NBS also added that about 427,000 new net jobs were created in Q3 2015, which was unable to match the over 1.9m new entrants into the labour market.

The rate of underemployed (those working but doing largely menial work or jobs not commensurate with their qualifications or not fully engaged and merely working for few hours) during the review quarter however, decreased slightly by 365,593.

Underemployment rate fell to 17.4 percent in Q3 2015(13.2m) from 18.3 percent (13.5m) in Q2 2015, from 16.6 percent (12.2m) in Q1 2015.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 201 million people globally are unemployed, with Nigeria being responsible for 4 percent of that global demographic.

The highest unemployment rate in the world is recorded in Djibouti (54%), Congo(46%), Bosnia and Herzegovinian(43%), Haiti (40%) and Kosovo(35%).

The lowest are found in Qatar (0.2%), Cambodia (0.3%), Belarus (0.5%), Thailand (0.8%), Benin (1.0%), Laos (1.40%) and Guinea Bissau (1.80%).

With an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent in Q3 2015, Nigeria has better rating when compared than 67 countries but worse than 113 countries, including 21 African countries that have their rates lower than 9.9 percent.

Job creation in the Nigerian economy fell by 70 percent, according to the last NBS report.