FACT OR DECEPTION?
Revised Methodology Resets Unemployment Rate at 6.4% in 2014

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday officially unveiled the revised concepts and methodology for computing labour statistics in the country, resetting the unemployment rate at 6.4 per cent as at fourth quarter of 2014.

Unemployment rate would have been 24.3 per cent using its old method of calculation.

However, the underemployment rate in the same period was put at 17.9 per cent.

But like the recent rebasing of the GDP, the new unemployment statistics is unlikely to make any tangible alteration to the critical unemployment situation in the country.

Nevertheless, it tends to benefit policy makers the more by painting a near accurate picture of the unemployment condition to guide their policy decision.

In the NBS adjusted methodology, which was perfected by the “Review of Unemployment Statistics Committee” headed by Prof. Sarah Anyanwu of the University of Abuja, a person who works for 20 hours and above in the reference week is considered to be fully employed as opposed to the International Labour Organisation (ILO’s) standard of 40 hours.

On the other hand, an individual is regarded as unemployed if he or she did nothing or worked less than 20 hours in the reference week while working for between 20 to 39 hours in the reference week renders an individual as underemployed.

But for the new computation method, the unemployment rate would have been 24.3 pe rcent in Q4 2014 if the old method was applied.

Speaking at the unveiling in Abuja, the Statistician General of the Federation, Mr. Yemi Kale, said the NBS has statutory powers by the Statistics Act to unilaterally determine appropriate statistical methodologies for the country.

He said: “The decision to amend our national definition of unemployment however, given how important a challenge it is to our country is not something we take lightly at the NBS.”

Kale said ILO’s definition of unemployment had inherent shortcomings that could render it unfit for the Nigerian economy.

For instance, using ILO standard, the country’s unemployment rate would be 2.2 percent in 2011 but 6.0 percent using the new NBS regime and 23.9 percent using the old system of computation.

Meanwhile, the new unemployment statistics showed female unemployment rate is higher while instances of under employment was far more prevalent over the unemployed.

Furthermore, the new NBS unemployment computation significantly altered exiting jobless rates putting it at 5.1 per cent against 21.4 percent adopting the old regime and ILO’s 1.9 per cent in 2010.

In 2011, the unemployment rate was 23.9 per cent, 6.0 per cent and 2.2 per cent for the old, new and ILO standard respectively.

For 2012, jobless rating was 27.7 per cent, 10.6 per cent and 7.6 per cent using the old, new and ILO standard respectively while in 2013, unemployment rate was 24.7 per cent, 10.0 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively.

According to Kale,“We need to know how many are unemployed and underemployed. How many are in seasonal, venerable and structural employment. I need to stress this point here that the definition of employment doesn’t take your income or qualifications into account.

“Some have argued that a taxi driver is only employed if his skills and qualifications are in line with what they perceive as basic requirements required being a taxi driver. If an uneducated man is a taxi driver then he has a job but if a PhD holder is a taxi driver then suddenly the activity of taxi driving is suddenly not a job.

“I’m sorry to say that taxi driving is a job regardless of who is doing it. However when a PhD driver does it, he is underemployed because he is doing work not commensurate with his skills so we will classify him as employed but underemployed. This sends a message to policy makers they have to create a better job for him while freeing what he is doing to an unemployed man who fits the skills of a taxi driver. This is more useful than emotionally dismissing him as unemployed and ignoring that vacancy exists.

“The more acceptable narrative to policy makers should be there is a PhD holder driving a taxi preventing some other Nigerian whose skills are better suited for that job so you need to create a more suitable job for the phd holder so the vacancy of a driver can be given to someone more suited.”

90% of the people in the zoo is unemployed, you can't call trader- runners employed, you can't call keke drivers employed, you can't call pure water business employment, that's why we're calling on biafrans to rise up and take back what belongs to us. We promise you all that when biafra comes, all graduates will be meaninfully employed,our old parents won't lack, we will build biafra to testify to the african people that we're a holy people.

BiafranMan:
90% of the people in the zoo is unemployed, you can't call trader- runners employed, you can't call keke drivers employed, you can't call pure water business employment, that's why we're calling on biafrans to rise up and take back what belongs to us. We promise you all that when biafra comes, all graduates will be meaninfully employed,our old parents won't lack, we will build biafra to testify to the african people that we're a holy people.

yawn

asha80:
yawn

I ask you, do you have constant power supply? Do you have good roads in the zoo? Do you have good schools or hospitals?
Ofcourse you can't reason properly cos You're either a monkey or a baboon.

BiafranMan:


I ask you, do you have constant power supply?
Do you have good roads in the zoo?
Do you have good schools or hospitals?

Ofcourse you can't reason properly cos You're either a monkey or a baboon.

yawn

'resetting the unemployment rate at 6.4 per cent as at fourth quarter of 2014'

lt is just pass midnight now, let Nigerians wake up to read this fallacy!

I laughedd so hard while reading this .....

Just as rebasing our GDP couldn't change the economic reality of the country, rebasing unemployment rate wouldn't change the fact that majority of Nigerians of productive age are either unemployed or underemployed.
I'll put our unemployment rate at 60%, because to me, anyone earning $200 and below a month is as good as unemployed.

Musiwa has got a competition.

BiafranMan:
90% of the people in the zoo is unemployed, you can't call trader- runners employed, you can't call keke drivers employed, you can't call pure water business employment, that's why we're calling on biafrans to rise up and take back what belongs to us. We promise you all that when biafra comes, all graduates will be meaninfully employed,our old parents won't lack, we will build biafra to testify to the african people that we're a holy people.

Without any real additional new job opportunity created, Unemployment Rate is revised. These nuisance is getting alarming. To announce new achievements, all Jonathan has to do is recalculate - Very Funny.

7 more days to end this madness. We need Real Jobs. Not recalculations. Millions of Nigerian youths are unemployed.

Sai Buhari all the way. We can't wait to return Jonathan to Bayelsa.

Nigerian government lying to it's people since 1960

Acrobatic defense...so if one works for 20hours, he is said to be employed. Imagine the Prof formulating an antithesis to ILO definition for the unemployed.

This government sef....

Nigerian government lying to it's people since 1960

Keneking:
Acrobatic defense...so if one works for 20hours, he is said to be employed. Imagine the Prof formulating an antithesis to ILO definition for the unemployed.

This government sef....

Don't mind them. Since when did we start working per hour in naija self. Employers here hire based on monthly rates and employees have to work from morning to evening.