Employment: 7.5m Nigerians Idle in 2 Years –NBS

The last has not been heard of the employment situation in the country as the much-touted creation of several employment opportunities via different projects by the current administration has amounted to further burden of about 7.5 million Nigerians doing nothing in two years, i.e. (between January 2016 and December 30, 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics labour data just released has revealed in Abuja.
The report further revealed that 77.55 million of country’s labour population of 85.1 million were involved in some certain economic activities for at least an hour a week; (8.46 million-1-19 hours; 18.02 million-20-39 hours; 51.06million-above 40 hours), as reflected in the third quarter of 2017 (Q3), just 7.53 million were doing absolutely nothing.
The data by the apex statistical agency further shows that even the 77.55 million labor population who were engaged in some extent of economic activity, 38.24% of them or 29.66 million were self-employed engaged in farming/agriculture, and 27,93% or 21.66 million were self-employed in non- farming/agriculture sectors.
“A total of 19.72 million were working for pay or wage, which was equivalent to 25.42% of the total workers in 2017 Q3. Paid apprentices and unpaid house workers constituted 7.30% and 1.11% of the total working force engaged for at last one hour a week.
The report also show that of a total employed (full time employed and underemployed which is 20 and above working hours a week) of 69.09 million, 17.88million or 25.88% work for pay/ wage, 45.47 million or 65.82% are self-employed working in agriculture (25.47 million or 36.87%) and non-agriculture related activities (20.0 million or 28.95%), 779,002 or 1.13% are paid apprentice and 4.95 million or 7.17% are unpaid houseworkers.