An announcement by the National Bureau of Statistics states that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has reduced from 5.3% in Q1 2024 to 4.3% in Q2 2024. However, compared with the unemployment rate in Q2 2023, there is a 0.1% increase from 4.2% to 4.3%.
The report showed that there was a significant difference in the gender unemployment rate between males at 3.4% and females at 5.1%. While the urban areas showed a higher unemployment rate of 5.2% and the rural areas had a lower unemployment rate of 2.8%.
Not to forget the youth unemployment rate decreased from 8.4% in Q1 2024 to 6.5% in Q2 2024.
Looking at educational attainment, persons with post-secondary education had a 4.8% unemployment rate, while those with upper secondary education had a higher rate of 8.5%. In contrast, those with primary education had a lower rate of 2.8%.
The research demonstrated a good trend in employment, with Nigeria’s employment-to-population ratio increasing to 76.1% in Q2 2024 from 73.1% in Q1. Disaggregated by gender, 77.2% of males and 75% of females were employed, with urban areas having a lower ratio of 73.2% compared to rural areas 80.8%.
The employment growth was most visible in rural areas, where the employment-to-population ratio went from 78.9% in Q1 to 80.8% in Q2, but urban areas experienced a minor improvement from 69.5% to 73.2%.
The Nigerian labor sector has also seen a move towards self-employment. In Q2 2024, the proportion of self-employed individuals increased to 85.6%, up from 84% in Q1 2024. Females had a much higher self-employment percentage (88.3%) than males (82.2%). In rural areas, self-employment reached 94.3%, greatly exceeding urban areas (79.7%).
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