Nigeria’s Unemployment Rises to 14.2% in Q4, 2016

• Nigeria’s Unemployment Rises to 14.2% in Q4, 2016

The number of unemployed people in Nigeria rose to more than 6 years high in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016 following high inflation and foreign exchange rates that forced businesses to close down and plunge foreign direct investment.

The number of unemployed persons in the labour force during the Q4 2016 surged by 351,015 to 14.2 percent, from 13.9 percent recorded in Q3 and 10.4 percent more than the same quarter in 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday.

Accordingly, the economic active population increased in the Q4 2016 to 108.59 million from 108.03 million. But only 81.15 million people were willing and actively looking for a job, leaving 27.44 million people within the labour force that for whatever reason decided not to work.

Unemployment and underployment increase the most among persons aged between 15-34, while the unemployment rate among those between the ages of 15-24 rose to 25.2 percent. The highest in over 5 years.

“The data was before recent measures to ease business and increase forex accessibility were put in place, therefore, the labour market should start witnessing moderate improvement in new job creation by Q2 2017,” said Samed Olukoya, a foreign exchange research analyst at Investors King Ltd.

“Also, with the economy on recovery path and the new forex policy that has helped curtail consumer prices and aid economic activities, the labour market will adjust accordingly,” he added.