Nigeria Labour Force Survey Q1 2023

First round

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has the mandate of producing and managing official statistics to guide government policies and programmes in the country. These official statistics are produced routinely in line with set standards and guidelines that govern their production. The Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) is one of the routine surveys conducted by NBS to produce labour market statistics intended to support policies and programmes of government, as well as for public use.

The methodology and standards, as a matter of best practice, are routinely reviewed and updated in line with current realities and evidence-based information. The last labour force report published was amidst COVID-19 pandemic for the period of Q4 2020, which reported a headline unemployment rate of 33.3% and an underemployment rate of 22.8%. As part of its routine methodological review and enhancement processes, NBS commenced work in 2021 with the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to update the methodology and processes for conducting the NLFS, which culminated in the results being presented in this report. Labour is often the only asset and main determinant of household income as well as whether people will live in or out of poverty. Therefore, it is essential to know whether people work, how long they work, and the types of jobs they are engaged in. The NLFS enables vital labour market statistics to be monitored regularly across Nigeria, including the employment-to-population ratio, unemployment rate, underemployment rate, and key job characteristics. NLFS data provides crucial evidence-based indicators to help inform policy making. Accordingly, NBS has significantly enhanced the methodology it uses to collect labour market data through the NLFS. This is in terms of the concepts and definitions used, as well as in the actual conduct of the survey. This has been done using International Labour Organisation (ILO) guidelines of the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) Resolutions2.

Based on the new methodology adopted,about three-quarter of working-age Nigerians were employed - 76.7% in Q1 2023.This shows that most people were engaged in some type of jobs for at least one hour in a week, for pay or profit.About one-third (33.2% in Q1 2023) of employed persons worked less than 40 hours per week in this quarter. This was most common among women, individuals with lower levels of education, young people, and those living in rural areas.Underemployment rate which is a share of employed people working less than 40 hours per week and declaring themselves willing and available to work more was 12.2% in Q1 2023.The share of wage employment was 11.8% in Q1 2023 .Most Nigerians operate their own businesses or engaged in farming activities with 75.4% in Q1 2023.

Furthermore, 10.6% in Q1 2023 were engaged helping (without pay or profit) in a household businesses. In Q1 2023, 2.2% were engaged as Apprentices/Interns.Unemployment stood at 5.3% in Q1 2023 and this aligns with the rates in other developing countries where work, even if only for a few hours and in low-productivity jobs, is essential to make ends meet, particularly in the absence of any social protection for the unemployed.20.1% of the working age population were out of labour force in Q1 2023 while the rate of informal employment among the employed Nigerians was 92.6%.