The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced in April 2023 that it intended to implement a new approach that complied with the most recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommendations for calculating labour force statistics.
The new technique, according to NBS, will show a significant decline in Nigeria’s jobless rate.
The agency released its labour report on Thursday under the heading “Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023.”
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According to the research, Nigeria’s jobless rate decreased from 33.1% in 2020 to 4.1 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023.
The underemployment rate, defined by NBS as a share of employed people working less than 40 hours per week and declaring themselves willing and available to work more, moved from 13.7 percent (Q4 2022) and 12.2 percent (Q1 2023) in three months.
The agency explained that the expansion of the definition of employment to include those working less than an hour per week, instead of the previous requirement of 20 hours per week, provides a clearer picture of the true extent of Nigeria’s underemployment crisis.
This is because it now includes people who are working in low-paying, insecure jobs, or who are working in jobs that do not utilise their skills and abilities, the NBS said.
