Over Twenty-Two Million Nigerians Were Unemployed, Says National Bureau of Statistics

Over twenty-two million Nigerians were unemployed in Nigeria in 2014. This was revealed Friday, at the unemployment methodology review forum held at the National Bureau of Statistics in Abuja.

The number according to NBS was an accumulation of the number of unemployed Nigerians in the four quarters of the year which represents 31 per cent of the country’s population as against 18.3 per cent according to International Labour Organization’s, ILO standard.

Out of 22,620,202 unemployed Nigerians, 4,672,067 million were unemployed in the fourth quarter, 7,027941 million were unemployed in the 3rd quarter and 5,307,375 million was unemployed in the second quarter, while 5,612, 819 million were unemployed in the first quarter of the year under review.

A further breakdown of the unemployment statistics was drawn from educational group; age group; gender and place of residence.
According to NBS, the figure increased by 21 per cent from 7,078,450 million (10.0%) recorded in the previous year.

The findings also showed that 17.9 per cent of the figure was under employed in the country in the year under review.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr. Sulaiman Abubakar stressed the importance of credible data, saying that federal government would continue to encourage the bureau to publish credible data for policy makers and Nigerian public.

‘‘As long as Nigeria hopes to stick to official and accurate statistics, it has to be encouraged and upheld at all times. A combination of international standard is critical to us and that is why we cannot afford to make the mistake of undermining the importance of accurate data in our country,’’ said Abubakar.

In his welcome address, the Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale said the event was a very important part of Nigeria’s quest as a nation for inclusive growth and social and economic development inline with the NBS’s renewd and deliberate efforts in the last few years to ensure availability of reliable and timely statistics necessary for policy making and business decisions. He added that the outcome of the exercise would give data users opportunity to ask questions and seek regular clarifications on any issue.