The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released a survey revealing that as of the third quarter of 2023 (Q3’23), approximately 92.3 percent of employees in Nigeria were part of the informal workforce.
Titled “Labour Force Statistics,” the survey report, which came out yesterday, shed light on another significant finding: 12.3 percent of the Nigerian population were underemployed during the surveyed period.
In a concerning development outlined in the report, the unemployment rate in the country saw a rise of 0.8 percentage points, reaching 5.0 percent in Q3’23 compared to the 4.2 percent documented in Q2’23.
The NBS report stated further: ‘The unemployment rate by sex among men was 4.0 percent and among women was 6.0 percent. ‘
‘Disaggregation by location, the unemployment rate was 6.0 percent in urban areas and 4.0 percent in rural areas.’
‘Focusing on young people, the youth unemployment rate was 8.6 percent.’
On underemployment rate, the bureau said: ‘In Q3’23, the share of employed Nigerians that were underemployed was 12.3 percent.’
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‘In disaggregating underemployment by sex, the share of employed men who were underemployed was 8.7 percent while the share of employed women who were underemployed was 16 percent.’ On employment rate, NBS said:
‘In Q3’23, 75.6 percent of Nigeria’s working-age population was in employment.’
‘In Q3’23, 87.3 percent of employed Nigerians were primarily selfemployed with the remaining 12.7 percent being primarily engaged as employees.’
‘The share of employed persons in informal employment was 92.3 percent in Q3’23 a reduction of 0.4 percent when compared to 92.7 percent in the previous quarter.’
The rate of informal employment among people living in rural areas was 97.2 percent while the urban informality rate was estimated at 87.5 percent
‘Disaggregating by sex, the employment-topopulation ratio was 77.7 percent for males and 73.5 percent for females.’
‘The employment-topopulation ratio in urban areas was 71.1 percent and 80.7 percent in rural areas.’ The report also showed that 13.7 percent of youth are not in employment, education or training (NEET Rate) in Q3’23.