Over 23 million Nigerians unemployed as unemployment rate hits 33.3% – NBS report

The number of unemployed people in Nigeria has increased by 1.4 million in six months according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the report, a total of 2,318,389 million Nigerians are willing to work but cannot find work as of December 2020.

The Labour Force Statistics report published by the agency on Monday, March 15, 2021 revealed that the unemployment rate jumped from 27.1% in Q2 2020 to 33.3% in Q4 2020.

During the period, while the underemployment rate decreased from 28.6 per cent to 22.8 per cent, a combination of both the unemployment and underemployment rate for the reference period gave a figure of 56.1 per cent.

” In the case of unemployment by state, Imo State recorded the highest rate of unemployment with 56.64%. This was followed by Adamawa with 54.89% and Cross Rivers State with 53.65%.

The States with the lowest rates were Osun, Benue and Zamfara States with 11.65%, 11.98% and 12.99% respectively. In the case of underemployment, Benue State recorded the highest rate with 43.52%, followed by Zamfara and Jigawa States with 41.73% and 41.29% respectively,” the report said.