The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday said the total number of Nigerians who became unemployed within the first and second quarter of 2016 now stands at 2.6 million.
In its second quarter unemployment and underemployment report released on Wednesday, NBS said the country’s unemployment rate grew from 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016 to a record high of 13.3 percent in the second.
According to the bureau, about 1.46 million Nigerians became unemployed in the third quarter of 2015, while another 518,102 became unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2015.
This brings the total freshly unemployed persons in the economy to a record high of 4,580,602, since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May 2015.
Underemployment in the economy was said to also be on the rise, with 15.4 million Nigerians said to be underemployed.
“The number of underemployed in the labour force (those working but doing menial jobs not commensurate with their qualifications or those not engaged in full-time work and merely working for few hours) increased by 392,390 or 2.61%, resulting in an increase in the underemployment rate to 19.3 % (15.4million persons) in q2 2016 from 19.1% (15,02 million persons) in q1 2016, 18.7% (14.42 million persons) in q4 2015, from 17.4% (13.2 million persons) in q3 2015 and 18.3% (13.5 million persons) in q2 2015.” the bureau said.
”There were a total of 26.06 million persons in the Nigerian labour force in Q2 2016, that were either unemployed or underemployed compared to compared to 24.5 million in Q1 2016 and 22.6 million in Q4 2015.”The bureau submitted.