Unemployment rate is set to be slashed by reviewing the protocol for calculating the data, a move that is likely to see millions of Nigerians categorized as employed, even for doing menial jobs that can barely ensure their survival. The National Bureau of Statistics will
today unveil a revised methodology for computing unemployment statistics, and will likely reduce Nigeria’s official work hour benchmark from 40 to 20 hours a week.
This will reduce Nigeria’s official unemployment rate from the current 23.9%. Nigeria currently relies on the International Labour Organisation, ILO’s principles, which puts 40 hours per week as the benchmark for all persons to be considered employed. But, the ILO principle puts Nigeria in a difficult situation, as most people, who put in more than the required benchmark hours in menial jobs, do not earn enough to be considered employed. The ILO defines employment as persons in the labour force who have been employed continuously for at least one hour in a week.
But, the Statistician General of the Federation, Yemi Kale, argued that if Nigeria were to strictly apply the one hour per week definition for employment, the unemployment rate in Nigeria would be in the region of an average of 2 to 3%, as virtually every Nigerian is engaged in one form of work or the other every day to survive…. he gave ds added example: Sumbo is a university graduate yet to gt a white collar job, bt in her wait, she decides to b commenting on all celeb posts on Instagram for 50hrs a week, though her gossip skills r underutilized, she is however employed…..
