The number of unemployed persons has risen to 23.19 million as of December 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The figure jumped from the 21.77m recorded in the second quarter of 2020, the NBS report indicated yesterday.
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The working-age population also rose from 116.88m people in Q2 2020 to 122.05m by Q4 2020. Those in the labour force, within ages 15 to 64 dipped from 80.29m people to 69.68m during the period. This is 13.22 per cent less than the record in Q2 2020. Analysis showed that there were 46.49m employed people in Q4, being 20.6% less than what it was as of Q2 2020.
From the employment figure of December 2020, 30.57m were on full-time, while 15.92m were under-employed (working between 20-29 hours per week).
Imo state had the highest unemployment rate of 56.6% while Osun (11.7%) had the lowest. Benue (43.5%) was the highest in underemployment rate while Lagos was the lowest (4.5%).
