Nigeria’s labour force statistics, the report that shows the quarterly data of the country’s employment and unemployment rates, has not been published for almost two years.
Going by the calendar on NBS website, the state-funded bureau was due to publish the 2019 labour forces statistics on Tuesday but was unable to deliver the report due to lack of funds, a source from the agency told BusinesssDay on the condition of anonymity. No new date has been announced.
“Funds haven’t been allocated to NBS or any other agency,” an NBS top executive said. The latest available data on Nigeria’s unemployment rate is for the third quarter of 2018. The statistics office has failed to publish the data at least three times since then, as compiled from its calendar. While the agency says it has been handicapped by funds, it has been able to release other reports on its website.“Not
report we publish requires funds or a lot of funds so some can be easily published, unlike the unemployment data that involve surveys and fieldwork,” the NBS source said. According to the most recent unemployment data by NBS, Nigeria’s jobless rate was at a record-high of 23.1 percent in Q3 2018. The country’s unemployment rate embarked on an upward spiral in 2015 after a decline to 6.4 percent a year earlier.
Labour force statistics is considered by economists as an important economic and social indicator used in the analysis, evaluation, and monitoring of the economy, the labour market, and a wide range of government policies.
Ayorinde Akinloye, an analyst at Lagos-based CSL Stockbrokers, said labour force statistics is one of the most important indicators for an economy as it explains how well hiring and job creation are following an economic downturn or upturn. “Also, it gives a gauge of how strong the average consumer is. Not having this data limits such insight on economic activities as well as consumer strength,” Akinloye said.
Since 2017 when oil-dependent Nigeria emerged from its economic recession, not only has the country’s economic growth been sluggish but only a few sectors triggered the expansion, further undermining the country’s capacity to create enough jobs to meet the growing number of labour market entrants.
Out of about 4.8 million Nigerians who entered the country’s labour market between 2015 and 2018, about 635,000 jobs were created within the period, indicating only a job was available for every 8 people who joined Nigeria’s economically active workforce.
While there seems to be no end in sight for the country’s soaring jobless rate, the challenge could be resolved through private sector expansion and industrial growth, according to the research arm of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).
For Nigeria to keep its unemployment rate stable at record-high 23 percent, the country would need to create at least 3.3 million jobs every year to avoid exacerbating joblessness and absorb new labour market entrants, even though it struggled to create a fifth of the jobs in the last four years. Creating 3.3 million jobs annually means Africa’s largest economy would need to revert to the private sector by attracting more foreign direct investments (FDI).
“At the moment, Nigeria’s private sector does not have the capacity to absorb the rapidly increasing unemployed population in the short term,” NESG stated in its recent report. While Nigeria’s unemployment and employment data for the last six quarters remain unknown, NBS disclosed on its calendar that it would publish the Q1 and Q2 2020 labour force statistics in August this year. “Work hasn’t started” on gathering unemployment data due to “budget issues”, the NBS source told BusinessDay on Tuesday.
