According to the NBS, the unemployment rate for males stood at 4.3 per cent, while females experienced a higher rate of 6.2 per cent during the same period. The report also highlighted disparities based on location, with urban areas recording a 6.0 per cent unemployment rate compared to 4.3 per cent in rural areas for Q1 2024.

“The unemployment rate for Q1 2024 was 5.3%, showing an increase from 5.0% recorded in Q3 2023,” the bureau stated in its report. The NBS defines the unemployment rate as the percentage of the labour force, including both employed and unemployed individuals, who are not working but are actively seeking employment.

Youth Unemployment Rate Declines

In a positive development, the report indicated a slight drop in youth unemployment, which fell to 8.4 per cent in Q1 2024, down from 8.6 per cent in Q3 2023. This figure represents the unemployment rate among Nigeria’s young people, a demographic that often faces unique employment challenges.

Educational Attainment and Unemployment

The report further provided insights into unemployment rates based on educational attainment. Individuals with postgraduate education recorded the lowest unemployment rate at 2.0 per cent, while those with post-secondary education faced a rate of 9.0 per cent. For people with secondary education, the rate stood at 6.9 per cent, and those with only primary education recorded a 4.0 per cent unemployment rate.

Employment-to-Population Ratio Falls to 73.2%

In addition to the unemployment data, the NBS also reported a decline in Nigeria’s employment-to-population ratio, a critical indicator of workforce participation. The ratio dropped to 73.2 per cent in Q1 2024, down from 75.6 per cent in Q3 2023. This ratio represents the percentage of the working-age population that is employed.

Breaking the data down by gender, the employment-to-population ratio for males was 74.2 per cent, while it was 72.3 per cent for females. By place of residence, urban areas had an employment-to-population ratio of 69.5 per cent, while rural areas recorded 78.9 per cent in Q1 2024, compared to 71.1 per cent and 80.7 per cent in Q3 2023, respectively.

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Global audit and tax advisory firm, KPMG, has projected that Nigeria’s unemployment rate is expected to rise to 40.6% as compared to 2022’s 37.7%.

KPMG in its International Global Economic Outlook report – H1 2023 on Tuesday, detailed this forecast, noting that “unemployment is expected to continue to be a major challenge in 2023 due to the limited investment by the private sector, low industrialization, and slower than required economic growth and consequently the inability of the economy to absorb the 4-5 million new entrants into the Nigerian job market every year”.

The report also revealed in part that there are expectations for GDP to continue to grow at a relatively slow pace of 3% in 2023 owing to the slowdown in economic activity that typically characterizes periods of political transition in Nigeria.

KPMG further explained that the spillover from an expected slowdown in the global economy in 2023 and its trade and financial flow implications are expected to drag on GDP.

“Additionally, growth will be negatively affected by the Naira Redesign Policy introduced in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 and its implications on key non-oil sectors like manufacturing, trade, accommodation and food services, transportation, and other services, further slowing down overall GDP growth in 2023,” the report added.

On the resurgence of major aspects of the economy, it forecasted that the telecommunications, trade services, as well as the oil sector, are expected to see recoveries, due to measures being taken to tackle security issues.

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The NBC in its ‘Labor Force Statistics: Unemployment and Underemployment Report’ released on Friday also disclosed that the number of persons in the economically active age (15 – 64 years), jumped from 115,492,969 in Q3 2018 to 116,871,186 in Q2 2020.

“For the period under review, Q2 2020, the unemployment rate among young people (15-34 years) was 34.9 per cent, up from 29.7 per cent, while the rate of underemployment for the same age group rose to 28.2 per cent from 25.7 per cent in Q3 2018,” the NBS report said. “These rates were the highest when compared to other age groupings.

“The number of persons in the labour force (i.e. people within ages 15 -64, who are able and willing to work) was estimated to be 80,291,894″.

This was 11.3 per cent less than the number of persons in Q3 2018.

“Of this number, those within the age bracket of 25-34 were highest, with 23,328,460 or 29.1 per cent of the labour force,” it added.

The report further revealed that the number of employed people in Q2 2020 slumped by 15.8 per cent to 58,527,276 when placed side by side with that of Q3 2018.

“Of this number, 35,585,274 were full-time employed (i.e. worked 40+ hours per week), while 22,942,003 were underemployed (i.e. working between 20-29 hours per week)”.

At 48.7 per cent, Imo State has the highest unemployment rate in the country and is trailed by Akwa-Ibom State (45.2 per cent) and Rivers State (43.7 per cent).

Anambra State, however, has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation – 17 per cent.

“For underemployment, the state which recorded the highest rate was Zamfara with 43.7 per cent, while Anambra State recorded the lowest underemployment rate, with 17 per cent in Q2 2020,” the agency said.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBS said: “2,736,076 did not do any work in the last seven days preceding the survey due to the lockdown but had secure jobs to return to after the lockdown.”

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As part of efforts aimed at alleviating poverty, unemployment and social vices in the country, a non-governmental organisation under the aegis of Adegboyega Adegoke Resource Centre (AARC) has trained and empowered over 200 youths with requisite entrepreneurial skills to be self-reliance.

Speaking at the graduation and distribution of working tools to young people who have undergone several forms of vocational training at the centre on Wednesday, in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman, Adegboyega Adegoke Resource Centre (AARC), Oloye Adegboyega Taofeek Adegoke noted that the only way to minimize poverty and curb social vices among youths in the country is the human development through vocational training and entrepreneurial skills.

Adegoke, who is the Executive Director Finance and Chief Financial Officer of OES Energy Services stressed that the training and empowerment will go a long way in reducing poverty, joblessness and the attendant crimes among the youths in the society

The Ajia Balogun Olubadan of Ibadanland also maintained that when youths are engaged and impacted with Knowledge through vocational training and studies, social vices and poverty would be reduced to the barest minimal.

While urging states and federal government to invest more on
vocational studies, Adegoke insisted that government can reduce social vices among the youths through handiwork rather than focusing alone on white collar job.

According to him, “there is poverty and unemployment in the land coupled with the consequences such as social vices, which we can reduce drastically if the government, corporate bodies, foundation and individual philanthropist can invest in vocational studies, by doing so many youths will be engaged and they will be far away from social vices, that can dent their image and that of their families.

“In my own little way in contributing to youth development and poverty alleviation, my foundation, Adegboyega Adegoke Resource Centre has device a vocational training for youths in several aspects such as candle and soap making, hairdressing, chalk making, tailoring, computer engineering, POP and others.

“We are presenting working tools to about 75 of them today, out of 200 as first batch to follow Covid-19 protocol, another two batches will follow in the next few weeks time. Parts of what we are distributing include sewing machines, hair dryer, laptops and computers, generators, cash and other working implements.

“We have trained people on how to be self-reliant and to become an entrepreneur. This will help in alleviating the poverty level in the state and country at large, and to generate income for themselves. The way the country is going now, you cannot rely on white collar job.

“We are also orientating the beneficiaries to be self-reliant instead of waiting for white-collar jobs that we all know are not there. They will be taught to have a saving culture.

“This kind of programme will put an end to youth unrest because when youths are gainfully engaged, they would not have time for unproductive activities like engaging in violent acts and all that”, he concluded

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Most notably of these set of historic landmarks, is the fact that another 20,000 erstwhile unemployed youths had been enlisted in an exemplary empowerment programme that has gained both federal and global relevance, for its unusual style, vision and mode of operation.

For eight years till date, this empowerment scheme, introduced right at the dawn of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s regime in 2010, has given hope in tangible ounces to a record 70,000 youths, transforming them into active stakeholders in both the state’s economy and for the nation’s ultimate good. The success of the scheme so far, its originality and its direct impact on the fortunes of youths in Osun state, are the factors that have earned it an unforgettable badge in the annals of erasing unemployment.

One would argue that the reason why OYES has succeeded so far from conception to implementation is the fact that it derives its originality from a school of thought that dwells largely on the ideals of people-based governance.

OYES, a direct brain child of Governor Aregbesola, was conceived as part of his six points integral action plan way back in 2005 while nurturing the ambition to contest the 2007 gubernatorial election. He, and a group of his comrades (who later formed an integral part of his administration, under the nomenclature, FORA – Friends Of Rauf Aregbesola, had taught about setting up a scheme that will wipe the dearth and impact of direct unemployment away from Osun’s sorry fortunes at the time.
One of the hit-the-ground-running moves was therefore to enrol 20,000 unemployed youths and engage them profitably in his first 100 days in office. True to it, when he got his mandate on the 26th of November 2010, within 98 days of the administration, he was able to launch the OYES scheme where the first batch was admitted.

As a revolving volunteers scheme, what OYES does and has done effectively in Aregbesola’s 8 years, is to eliminate the frustration and paralyzing effect of unacceptably high and seemingly intractable youth unemployment pervasive in Osun, nay, Nigeria, by deploying holistic entrepreneurial and life skills into a swathe of unemployed youths, all with the strategic intention of achieving lasting empowerment for its beneficiaries.

In the words of one of the early commentators and admirers of the scheme, “the OYES scheme basically said “NO” to the idea of giving mere handouts to youths in the name of empowerment, rather, it sought how to employ youths into a skills accrual setup, where they are paid a stipend while at it, and where they are nurtured to outgrow this setup into becoming gainful entrepreneurs of their own”
These and other characteristic charismatic natures of OYES are why Governor Aregbesola received accolades from many, notably from VP Osinbajo, as the latest beneficiaries were inaugurated.

In Prof Osinbajo’s words, the OYES programme has been able to successfully set a great and exemplary precedence for youth empowerment and engagement in country as a whole, noting especially that the Federal government’s Npower Programme was designed to be similar to OYES, adding that the country would benefit greatly, if OYES could be embraced by other state governments.

The VP further noted that the Federal Government had employed 500,000 youths into Npower programme; that’s half a million youths enrolled into a programme designed to prepare for entrepreneurship life. In fact, the Federal Government, based on further recommendation from the OYES template, created a youth employment wing at the National Directorate of Employment, naming it the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO). It has even recently introduced a sister project known as Youth Entrepreneurial Scheme (YES).
This is the seismic impact the OYES programme has had in Osun state and clearly, beyond it.

For the past 7 years, Aregbesola’s OYES strategy has created a healthy flow into the state and national economies, and at the same time allowed succeeding batches of 20,000 unemployed youths to experience the benefits of serving as Cadet Volunteers in OYES.

Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo inaugurating the latest batch of beneficiaries of OYES in Osogbo, the Osun state capital

On Saturday, in the presence of God, past beneficiaries, cheering family and friends, eminent personalities, government executives and the Governor Aregbesola himself, 20,000 other youthful beneficiaries sealed the legendary status of OYES, as they waved in appreciation, oblivious of the opportunity presented to them to partake in a scheme that has not just raised a new set of stakeholders who embrace, understand and apply the dignity in productive labour, but that will also be unarguably deemed unforgettable in the annals of fighting unemployment successfully.

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