The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) today reported that 77.55 million people out of the 85.08 million in the nation’s labour market were engaged in one economic activity or the other in the third quarter of last year.
The Bureau disclosed this in its latest “Labour Force Statistics Volume 2: Employment by Sector Report for Third Quarter of 2017’’ released in Abuja.
According to the bureau, the 77.55 million were engaged in some sort of economic activities for at least an hour a week. It, however, noted that 8.46 million were engaged between one to19 hours weekly; 18.02 million 20 to 39 hours; 51.06 million above 40 hours), while 7.53 million were doing absolutely nothing.
The bureau in the latest report classified those working less than 20 hours a week and those doing absolutely nothing as unemployed while those working 20 to 39 hours or doing jobs not commensurate with their qualifications and skills were classified as under-employed.
It stated further that out of 8.46 million persons that worked within 1 to19 hours a week, 1.83 million or 21.67 per cent work for pay/ wage. It stated that the 5.84 million or 69.03 per cent were self-employed working in agriculture (4.18 million or 49.44 per cent) and non-agriculture related activities (1.65 million or 19.58 per cent).
In addition, it disclosed that 83,978 or 0.99 per cent were paid apprentice and 703,240 or 8.31 per cent were unpaid house workers. It stated that under the working hours’ category, Agriculture sector with 59.02 per cent or 5.01 million persons dominated, followed by Trade (9.7 per cent), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (7.0 per cent).
The bureau further stated that out of 18.02 million persons that worked within 20 to 39 hours a week and classified as underemployed, 3.77 million or 20.96 per cent work for pay/wage.
The NBS reported further that 11.60 million or 64.36 per cent were self-employed working in agriculture (6.62million or 36.72 per cent) and non-agriculture related activities (4.98 million or 27.64 per cent).
In addition, it stated that 231,671 or 1.28 per cent were paid apprentice and 2.41 million or 13.39 per cent were unpaid house workers. Meanwhile, the report stated that more males worked full-time than female, while a higher percentage of female worked part-time between 20 to 39 hours and below 20 hours per week
It stated that the absolute number of male full-time workers (34.85 million) was more than twice the number of female full-time workers (16.21 million) in the third quarter of 2017.
The report also stated that a larger percentage of males to females were self-employed in farming/agriculture work, while a larger percentage of females were self-employed in non-farming/agriculture work. It stated that agriculture dominated both female and male labour markets.
