Nigeria’s unemployment rate has increased to 33.3 percent in fourth quarter (Q4) 2020 from 27.1 recorded in second quarter (Q2) 2020.
The new figure is a new record high according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In the Q4 unemployment report released by the NBS on Monday, a total of 23.18 million persons in Nigeria either did nothing or worked for less than 20 hours a week, making them unemployed during the fourth quarter (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.
“Combining both unemployment and underemployment, the state that recorded the highest rate was Imo with 82.5% followed by Jigawa with 80%. Ogun and Sokoto states recorded the lowest of the combined rates, 26.2% and 33.7% respectively.”
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