FG Educates Nigerians on New Labour Data, Appeals for Understanding

• The National Bureau of Statistics has enlightened the country on the Nigerian Labour Force Survey
• It said the new methodology on unemployment and underemployment statistics will adequately capture a person's work status
• NBS recently announced changes to some of the definitions and concepts applied in the computation of Labour Force Statistics in Nigeria

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has enlightened the country on the Nigerian Labour Force Survey (NLFS). According to NBS, the new methodology on unemployment and underemployment statistics will adequately capture if a person is working or not and the level of such work.

This was disclosed by Comrade Patrick Ogheneyero O, executive director, Centre for Peace, Transparency and Accessibility (CPTA) when he addressed media editors recently in Abuja.

Recall that the NBS recently announced changes to some of the definitions and concepts applied in the computation of Labour Force Statistics in Nigeria.

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These changes also included a revision to the design and methodology used in the conduct of the Labour Force Survey, which is the survey that produces most of the labour market statistics, including the headline Unemployment and Underemployment rates. This has generated a lot of reactions from Nigerians.

However, Ogheneyero in efforts to enlighten Nigerians said that the previous mythology used did not adequately captured those who are really working and those who are not.

He said:

"Prior to 2014 when the last Labour force Methodology Review was conducted, any persons who within the last 7 days, worked for less than 40 hours (I.e. 1 -39hours) would be considered unemployed.

"Of course, you can imagine the issues associated with that definition; many teachers, farmers and even persons involved in professionals were considered unemployed, which ought not to be so. So a review was conducted in 2014 to address that definition, which resulted in the 20-hour benchmark that was being used until recently.

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"Under that review done in 2014, if you work 1 – 19 hours a week, you are considered unemployed, and if you work 20 – 39 hours a week, you are considered as Under-employed (time-related Under-employed), regardless whether you desire to do more hours of work or not. And that has been our definition since 2014, until this recently change."

Ogheneyero added that in 2013, a new guidelines for the production of labour force statistics was published by International Labour Organization (ILO). He said the guidelines sought to address limitations with the previous guidelines by providing broader measures of labour underutilisation beyond unemployment. It recognised all work done, paid or unpaid, and also, sought to integrate labour statistics with other topics such as GDP (Labour Productivity).

According to him, below are the changes made using the new ILO guidelines?

• Working Age Population – it previously was 15 -64, but is now 15 and above.
• Labour Force – previously those between the ages of 15 – 64, that were willing and available for work, which includes those employed and those unemployed. However, it is now those aged 15 and above that are willing and available for work, including those employed and those unemployed.
• Unemployed Persons – the new definition of unemployed persons, is anyone within the Labour force, who within the reference period, (previous 7 days) did nothing or worked for less than 1 hour. This is a significant change from the old definition, where to qualify to be employed, a person needed to have worked for a minimum of 20 hours within the reference period of 7 days.
• Under-employed Persons – Under the old definition, a person is considered Under-employed if he or she worked between 20 and 39 hours within the reference period of a week. Under the new definition, however, anyone working under 40 hours, that is 1 – 39 hours a week, and is willing to accept more hours of work is considered Under-employed.

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FG releases new details as value of Tokunbo cars in Nigeria falls by 47% in 2022

Legit.ng reported that according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the value of used vehicles dropped by 47% in 2022, to N335.05 billion from N617.48 billion in 2021.

The NBS data says that used cars with diesel or semi-diesel engines cost around N72.32 billion to import in Q1 of 2022, N96.76 billion in Q2, about N90.77 billion in Q3 and N65.19 billion in Q4 of 2022, computing about N325.05 billion.

Compared to 2021, vehicle dealers brought in N174.22 billion worth of used vehicles in Q1, N172.07 billion in Q2 of 2021, N185.41 billion in Q3 of 2021, and N85.77 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, amounting to N617.84 billion.

Source: Legit.ng