Q4 2020: Nigeria’s Unemployment Rate Rise To 33.3%

Nigeria’s unemployment rate at the end of 2020 increased by 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter from 27.1 percent recorded in the second quarter of 2020.

The increase, 33.3 percent, indicates that about 23,187,389 (23.2 million) Nigerians remain unemployed in the fourth quarter.

This is according to the recently released labour force report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Under-employment rate in the reference period however dropped from 28.6 percent recorded as at the second quarter 2020 to 22.8 percent in Q4 2020.

The report shows that the estimated number of persons in the economically active or working-age population (15 – 64 years of age) during the reference period of the survey, Q4, 2020 was 122,049,400.

In 2016 the population of unemployed Nigerians was 11.5 million and this rose to 17.7 million in 2017. In the third quarter of 2018, 20.9 million Nigerians were unemployed.

However, in the second quarter of 2020, unemployment rate rose to 21.8 million and 23.2 million in the fourth quarter of the same year.