The unemployment rate in Nigeria has increased by 33.3 per cent, as a total of 23.18 million persons are either unemployed or working for less than 20 hours a week in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020, data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday has revealed
The latest figures by NBS represented the highest unemployment rate in Nigeria’s history, while compared the latest unemployment rate of 33.3 per cent with 27.1 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2020.
The Nation’s statistics agency in its Q4 report on unemployment stated that the new figure was higher than the 2.1 million declared in the second quarter (Q2) 2020.
The report, however, stated that 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.
According to the report, Imo State recorded the highest rate of unemployment with 56.64per cent followed by Adamawa – 54.89per cent and Cross River – 53.65 per cent.
The States with the lowest rates were Osun, Benue and Zamfara recording 11.65 per cent, 11.98 per cent and 12.99 per cent respectively. Benue State recorded the highest rate of underemployment with 43.52 per cent, followed by Zamfara and Jigawa States with 41.73 per cent and 41.29 per cent respectively.
“Combining both unemployment and underemployment, the state that recorded the highest rate was Imo with 82.5 per cent followed by Jigawa with 80 per cent. Ogun and Sokoto states recorded the lowest of the combined rates, 26.2 per cent and 33.7 per cent respectively,” the report added.