Nigeria Missing From Top 10 African Countries With Highest Employment Rate, ILO Release Data
- Data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says Nigeria's unemployment rate remains staggeringly high
- The data reveals that Nigeria has an unemployment rate of 45.5% against the 4.1% rate stated by NBS
- The ILO data shows that Nigeria has more dependents than most African countries
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Nigeria's unemployment rate is still high despite the claims of the National Bureau of Statistics, putting the country's unemployment at about 4.1% from 33% in the first quarter of 2023.
Employment data obtained by Legit.ng from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) shows the abysmal employment rate in Africa's largest economy.
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Nigeria has a high labour-dependent population
The data says about 45.5 per cent of the country's population remains unemployed.
The ILO puts Nigeria's employment-to-population ratio at 55.5% and its labour dependency ratio at 2.1%.
ILO defines the labour dependency ratio as the number of dependents under 15 and working-age persons outside the labour force or unemployed.
It says a ratio above one means more dependents than people in employment.
Qatar leads with the highest unemployment in the world
The ILO ranks Qatar with the highest number of employed people, with an employment rate of 88.2% and a labour-dependent ratio of 0.35%.
In Africa, the ILO ranks Madagascar as the country with the highest employment rate, with 84.1% of its population being gainfully employed and a labour-dependent ratio of 0.85%.
Tanzania follows with an 80.3% employment rate and a labour-dependent ratio of 1.20%.
African countries with high employment rate
- Burundi - 78.9%
- Ethiopia - 77.3%
- Mozambique - 75.4%
- Liberia - 73.8%
- Niger - 73.1%
- Eritrea - 72.5%
- Kenya - 70.3%
- Angola - 60.9
ILO adopts new work framework as NBS report comes under criticism
The ILO said in its report that international statistics standards concerning employment have changed over time.
It said that the changes came during its 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2023 when the international community adopted its first definition of work and forms of work framework.
ILO said:
"Within the new framework, employment is defined as work performed in return for pay or profit. This is narrower than the scope of the previous definition, which included some unpaid activities such as subsistence work."
The NBS said that Nigeria's employment fell from 33% to 4.1% in Q1 2023, stating that it adopted the ILO's latest framework and work definition.
The report was criticized heavily, with many faulting the NBS' methodology.
“Working for 1hr shows you are employed”: Nigeria’s unemployment rate drops to 4.1% in Q1 2023
Legit.ng reported that Nigeria’s unemployment rate has dropped to 4.1% for the first quarter of 2023 from 5.3 percent recorded in the previous quarter.
This was disclosed in the latest report titled Nigeria’s Labour Force Survey (NLFS) prepared by the National Bureau of Statistics, World Bank and International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) released on Thursday, August 24, 2023.
The new unemployment figure represents a massive drop from the unemployment rate of 33.3 percent reported in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Source: Legit.ng
