The National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday said it had revised the country’s labour statistics, stating that as a result, the number of those unemployed had dropped from 16.07 million or 23.9 per cent in 2011 to 4.67 million or 6.4 per cent as at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014.
The bureau had in September 2014 constituted a committee of experts and stakeholders to review the definition and methodology applied in computing unemployment statistics in the country.
This was aimed at assessing the current definition of unemployment in the context, and consequently recommending a new appropriate definition for computing unemployment rate and other labour related indicators in the country so as to ensure that it was in line with internationally agreed standards as well as satisfying local conditions
Historically, the NBS defined the unemployed as the proportion of the labour force that did no work at all or worked less than 40 hours a week.
This, however presents a major challenge, as those who work for less than 40 hours are classified as unemployed.
The International Labour Organisation uses one hour a week as the benchmark as opposed to the 40 hours used by the NBS
But following the recommendation of the committee, which was chaired by Prof. Sarah Anyanwu of the University of Abuja, the NBS has now adopted 20 hours per week to be used in computing the unemployment rate.
In the revised statistics, the total labour force at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014 was put at 72.93 million.
Of this figure, the bureau put the number of those that are fully employed (40 hours and above) at 55.206 million or 75.68 per cent; underemployed (20 to 39 hours) at 13.05 million or 17.89 per cent; and unemployed (one to 19 hours) at 3.14 million or 4.3 per cent.
Curiously, the report said that 1.52 million people, representing 2.08 per cent, were currently not engaged in any economic activity, implying that their working hour was zero.
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