By Mary Izuaka
Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in the second quarter of 2024, Nigeria’s Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.
In its report for Q2 2024 released on Monday, the NBS said the unemployment rate dropped from 5.3% in Q1 2024.
A breakdown of the report showed that the labour force participation rate among the working-age population increased to 79.5% in Q2 2024 from 77.3% in Q1 2024.
The report said the employment-to-population ratio was 76.1% in Q2 2024. This, according to the bureau, is an increase of 2.9 percentage points when compared to 73.2% in Q1 2024. Year-on-year comparison shows a slight decrease from Q2 2023 at 77.1%.
“The combined unemployment rate and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) decreased to 13% in Q2 2024 from 15.3% in Q1 2023,” it said.
The NBS noted that informal employment remains high at 93%.
According to the report, the unemployment rate among persons with secondary education was 7.6% in Q2 2024, and the unemployment rate among youth aged 15-24 years was 6.5% in Q2 2024.
The unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.2% in Q2 2024. This is significantly higher compared to 2.8% in rural areas.
Also, 3.7% of the working-age population was in subsistence agriculture in Q2 2024.
It is not clear whether the report for the third and fourth quarters of 2024 will be better. It is also unclear how this has reflected on the Nigerian population. But the country still has over 50% of its population living below the poverty line, and over 50% either unemployed or underemployed.
