Nigeria’s unemployment rate has increased to 27.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020 from 23.1 per cent recorded in 2018.

The National Bureau of Statistics NBS, which confirmed this in a statement titled ‘Labor Force Statistics: Unemployment and Underemployment Report’ which was released on Friday added that the number of persons in the economically active or working-age population (15 – 64 years of age) increased to 116,871,186 from 115,492,969 in 2018.

According to the report, more than 17 million Nigerians have become unemployed since December 2014, while the total working-age population has grown by almost the same number in those six years.

“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.

“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.

“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).” the statement said.

Also, it’s been reported that Imo State has the highest rate of unemployment with 48.7 per cent, followed by Akwa-Ibom State and Rivers State with 45.2 per cent and 43.7 per cent respectively. Anambra recorded the lowest rate of unemployment at 13.1 percent.

“For underemployment, the state which recorded the highest rate was Zamfara with 43.7 percent, while Anambra State recorded the lowest underemployment rate, with 17 percent in Q2 2020.

“A total number of 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,” the statement added.