Nigeria has ranked as the country with the highest unemployment rate globally, according to recent statistics released by the World of Statistics. Nigeria led with an unemployment rate of 33.3%, followed by South Africa at 32.9% and Iran at 15.55%. On the other end of the spectrum, countries with the lowest unemployment rates included Qatar at 0.1%, Cambodia at 0.36%, and Niger at 0.5%. Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the unemployment rate increased from 27.1% in Q2 2020 to 33.3% in Q4 2020.
A multinational consulting firm, KPMG, indicated in a more recent report that Nigeria’s unemployment rate surged to 37.7% in 2022 and is projected to further rise to 40.6% due to continuous influx of job seekers into the market. This challenge is attributed to slower economic growth and the economy’s inability to absorb the large number of new entrants—around 4-5 million annually—into the job market.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), an advocate for fiscal transparency and evidence-driven policy, has called on the National Bureau of Statistics to urgently release updated unemployment data for the country. The CSJ criticized the NBS for not providing updated information since the fourth quarter of 2020, considering it a negligence of duty. The NBS had initially announced its intention to release new unemployment and employment figures by May 2023, but the report is yet to be released.
Opinion:
The persistently high unemployment rate in Nigeria is a concerning issue that requires immediate attention from policymakers. The country’s economy is grappling with absorbing a significant number of new job seekers, exacerbating the challenge of job creation. The discrepancy in unemployment figures from different sources, such as the NBS and KPMG, highlights the complexity of accurately capturing the state of unemployment. The government needs to prioritize job creation, economic diversification, and skill development to address the unemployment crisis and improve the livelihoods of its citizens.