22nd December, 2023
By Paul Dada
The self-employed constitute around 88.0 % of the Nigerian working population, says a report by the National Bureau of Statistics.
This is contained in the report of the Nigerian Labour Force Survey of the second quarter of 2023. The report said “In Q2 2023, 88.0% of employed Nigerians were primarily self-employed with the remaining 12.0% being primarily engaged as employees. Disaggregation by sex, 85.2% of employed men were self-employed compared to 91.0% of employed women. Disaggregation by location, 80.5% of employed people in urban areas were selfemployed compared with 95.3% of employed people in rural areas”.
The NBS also said “the labour force participation rate among the working-age population remained high at 80.4% in Q2 2023”. It also said the employment-to-population ratio was 77.1% in Q2 2023.
According to the NBS, the combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) was 15.5% in Q2 2023.
It further said: “The unemployment rate in Q2 2023 was 4.2%, this is an increase of 0.1% from the figure recorded in Q1 2023 (4.1%). The rate of unemployment among persons with post-secondary education was 8% in Q2 2023.The Unemployment rate among youth aged (15-24 years) in Q2 2023 was 7.2% having been at 6.9% in Q1 2023.
“The Unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.9% in Q2 2023, an increase from 5.4% in Q1 2023. Time-related underemployment in Q2 2023 was 11.8%”
The NBS put the informal employment rate in Q2 2023 at 92.7%.