Recent data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that over 22 million Nigerians are unemployed.
In an email sent to journalists and obtained by NAIJ.com, the NBS stated that the number of underemployed in the Nigerian labour force increased by 1.21 million or 9.16%, resulting in an increase in the underemployment rate to 18.7% or 14.42 million persons in the fourth quarter of the year 2015.
Further prove into the data revealed that 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 the fourth quarter of 2015 from 9.9% in the third quarter of the same year 2015 and from 8.2% in the second quarter.
This means there were a total of 22.45 million persons in the Nigerian labour force in the last quarter of 2015, that were either unemployed or underemployed compared to compared to 20.7 million in the third quarter 19.6 million in the second quarter.
Reacting to the new unemployment statistics, a Human Resources consultant based in Lagos, Mrs Shola Adeyeye told NAIJ.com that every Nigerian should be bothered by the new statistics. She said: ”It is a sad situation really.
Those of us in charge of recruitment receive thousands and thousands of emails for job seekers all around the country. It is really pathetic.” Meanwhile, the issue of unemployment seem to be a global problem.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) recently stated that 201 million people globally are unemployed and predicts this may rise to 219 million by 2019. In a related development, the federal government has launched an initiative called Youths Entrepreneurship Support (YES) project. YES aims to equip young people with entrepreneurial skills and give them access to repayable loan worth N10 billion.
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