Recent findings by The PUNCH indicate that a staggering 88.2% of working-age Nigerians are without salary-paying jobs. Data sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) underscores that only about 11.8% of the working-age population were engaged in wage employment during the first quarter of 2023.
Wage employment, as defined by asksource.info, encompasses any paid job under contract – written or otherwise – with another individual, organization, or enterprise, spanning both the formal and informal sectors. The NBS data also highlights a decline of 1.6 percentage points in the proportion of wage employment, slipping from 13.4% in Q4 2022 to 11.8% in Q1 2023.
The Nigeria Labour Force Survey (4th Quarter 2022 and 1st Quarter 2023) report released by the NBS further reveals that the majority of Nigerians are self-employed, with only a modest percentage holding wage jobs. The report unveils that 73.1% and 75.4% of employed Nigerians in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 respectively were engaged in their own businesses or farming activities for their primary source of income.
In contrast, 13.4% (Q4 2022) and 11.8% (Q1 2023) were categorized as employees in wage jobs for their primary employment. Additionally, 10.7% (Q4 2022) and 10.5% (Q1 2023) were primarily involved in aiding household businesses, indirectly receiving compensation or profit, even if not their own venture.
The report also identifies strong correlations between the likelihood of holding a wage job and factors such as gender, educational attainment, age, and urban-rural status. Men were more inclined to primarily engage in wage jobs compared to women, while those with higher levels of education and urban dwellers were more likely to have wage jobs.
Despite the improvement, Nigeria still grapples with a high unemployment rate when compared to neighboring countries. The NBS data indicates that the unemployment rate stands at 4.1% in both Cameroon and Nigeria, contrasting with 0.7% in Niger, 3.9% in Ghana, 1.5% in Chad, and 1.8% in Benin.
It’s worth noting that critics have questioned the accuracy of the NBS’s new methodology, suggesting that it might not accurately reflect the reality of the country’s employment landscape.
published by: MarketNewsNG