At least 1,972,722 Nigerians have become unemployed since President Muhammadu Buhari took over on May 29, 2015, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has revealed.

This raises Nigeria’s unemployment profile to 8.03 million – four percent of the world’s unemployed.

The report, which was released on Monday, revealed that Nigeria’s working population grew from 104.3 million in Q3 2015 to 105.02 million in Q4 2015, with 28.1 million economically active persons unwilling to work.

On the other hand, “the labour force population (that is those within the working age population willing, able and actively looking for work) increased to 76.96 million from 75.94 million in Q3 2015.

“During the same period, the number of unemployed in the labour force, increased by 518,102 persons, resulting in an increase in the national unemployment rate to 10.4% in Q4 2015 from 9.9% in Q3 2015 and from 8.2% in Q2 2015”.

With 1,454,620 becoming unemployed from July 1 to September 30, 2015, and 518,102 from October to December 2015, at least 1,972,722 became unemployed in Buhari’s first six months.

“In view of this, there were a total of 22.45 million persons in the Nigerian labour force in Q4 2015 that were either unemployed or underemployed compared to 20.7 million in Q3 2015 and 19.6 million in Q2 2015.

“The number of underemployed in the labour force (those working but doing menial jobs not commensurate with their qualifications or those not engaged in fulltime work and merely working for few hours) increased by 1.21 million or 9.16%, resulting in an increase in the underemployment rate to 18.7% (14.42 million persons) in Q4 2015, from 17.4% (13.2mn) in Q3 2015 and 18.3% (13.5mn) in Q2 2015.

Despite the unemployment recorded in the economy, Nigeria ranks 45 on the world unemployment ladder.

“The highest unemployment rate in the world as of latest reported in q4 2015 is recorded in Djibouti (54%), Congo(46%), Bosnia and Herzegovinian (42.9%), Haiti (40.6%), Afghanistan (40%), Kenya (40%), Kosovo(35%), while the lowest are found in Qatar (0.2%), Cambodia (0.3%), Belarus(0.5%), Thailand (0.8%), Benin (1.0%), Madagascar (1.2%), Laos (1.40%) and Guinea Bissau(1.80%).

“Nigeria with an unemployment rate of 10.4% in Q4 2015 has a better unemployment rate than reported in 66 countries, but worse than 111 countries, including 23 African countries which have unemployment rates lower than 10.4%.

“If we add underemployment to unemployment and get a rate of 29.2% for Q4 2015, then Nigeria has the 7th highest unemployment rate in the world (Important to note other countries don’t add underemployment) with only Kenya Congo and Djibouti with worse rates in Africa.”

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has promised Nigerians that three million jobs would be created within three years, starting in 2016.

•Text courtesy of Nigerian Pilot. Photo shows President Buhari.

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