Nigeria’s Workforce Volume Hits 78.4million in Q1 2016

The NBS said the figure was 76.9 million for the same period in 2015, representing a rise of 1.99 per cent.

This is contained in a report titled: “Unemployment/Under-employment Watch Q1 2016,” released by the NBS.

Based on the statistics, it is likely Nigeria has been unable to create the 1.5 million jobs required between the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 to keep the unemployment rate constant at 10.4 per cent.

Additional 15 million economically active persons between 15 and 64 entered the labour force between last January 1 and March 31.

According to the NBS, the new entrants into the labour market also consisted of newly qualified graduates, fresh entrants into the economically active population (who became 15 in Q1 2016) and those who chose not to work for whatever reasons in earlier periods, among others.

The report added that within the same period, the number of those in full time employment dropped by 528,148 persons or 0.97 per cent.

The NBS noted that the drop in full time employment between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016 was predominantly those between the ages 15 and 24 years, followed by ages 55-64 years, ages 45-54 years, and ages 35-44 years.