Lagos adds 740,146 jobs in 12 months — highest in the country

A recently released report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown that 740,146 jobs were added between July 2017 and June 2018.

According to the Q3 2018 Labor Force Statistics (unemployment & underemployment by state) rep released on Friday, Akwa Ibom reported the highest unemployment rate at 37.7%.

As at December 2018, a total of 20.9 million Nigerians were reported to be unemployed.

“Akwa Ibom state reported the highest unemployment rate (37.7%), followed by Rivers State with (36.4%), Bayelsa state (32.6%), Abia (31.6%) and Borno state (31.4%),” the report read.

“The top 5 states with the highest unemployed population are Rivers (1,673,991), Akwa Ibom (1,357,754), Kano (1,257,130), Lagos (1,088,352) and Kaduna with (940,480).

“Among these 5 states with the highest unemployed population, Lagos state reported the lowest rate of 14.6% during the reference quarter.”

Only nine states were able to reduce unemployment and underemployment rates between the third quarter of 2017 and the corresponding quarter in 2018. These states were listed as Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ondo and Rivers.

The six states that recorded the highest gains in net full-time employment between Q3 2017 and Q2 2018 include Lagos adding 740,146 net full-time jobs, Rivers (235,438), Imo(197,147), Ondo (142,514), Enugu (122,333) and Kaduna (118,929).

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, people often move from state to state seeking job opportunities.

This, it said, could create a false impression of the status of states at a particular time by reducing the unemployment figures in some states and increasing it in other states.

“States with a higher propensity for women to be housewives or stay home husbands or that have negative attitudes to working tend to have lower unemployment rates, as they are not considered part of the labour force in the first place.

“These States tend to have a higher proportion of their economically active population outside the labour force thereby reducing the number looking for work and hence the number that can be unemployed.”

Across the country, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna, and Yobe, recorded the highest underemployment rates between July and September 2018.