Women account for highest unemployed Nigerians

The recently released report on unemployment in Nigeria by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows women are the worst hit with 12.2 million unemployed females and 9.5 million unemployed men.

The number of persons in the labour force, people within ages 15 -64, who are able and willing to work was estimated to be 80 million of which males are about 41.6 million while females are 38.6 million.

Female unemployment has risen to 31.6 percent from 26.6 percent in the third quarter of 2018 while male unemployment also rose to 22.9 percent from 20.3 percent in the same period.

Similarly, the number of female underemployed was highest with 7.1 million while 5.2 million males were reported to be under employed.

Underemployed males in Nigeria are 26.3 percent in 2020 compared with 15.4 percent in 2018 while under employed females in Nigeria have risen from 25.9 percent recorded in 2018 to 31 percent in 2020.

A total of about 21.1 million males were reported to be fully employed (working for 40 hours+), a decline from the 31.9 million recorded in 2018 while about 14.4 million females were said to be fully employed, which is also a decline from 19.4 million recorded in 2018.

A total of 10.9 males were recorded to have be employed part time (working from 20-39 hrs), an increase from 7.6 million males recorded in 2018 while a total of about 11.9 females were recorded to be employed for just 20-39 hrs, also an increase from the 10.5 percent recorded in 2018.

According to the data by NBS, about 4.3 million males are under employed working for 0 hours while under employed females working for 0 hours was reported to be 5 million.

As shown by the data, 5.2 males are under employed working for just 1-19 hrs while 7.2 million females work for the same number of hours.