September 25, 2024/NBS

INTRODUCTION

The Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) is a statistical survey designed to collect comprehensive data on employment, unemployment, and other characteristics of the population labour force. It provides quarterly estimates of the main labour force statistics with sufficient precision at the national level.

This report contains findings from the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) for the first quarter of 2024. The statistics are measured based on the labour force framework as guided by the international standard for labour market statistics for international comparability and the specific data requirements for the country.

The main objective of the NLFS is to collect basic statistics on the labour market situation in Nigeria and make labour statistics available to support government policies and programmes for effective planning, and for the private sector to support investment decision-making aimed at improving the employment situation in the country.

The Labour Force Survey also serves as a tool for monitoring progress towards national goals and global commitments with an overarching goal of promoting the welfare of the Nigerian population while ensuring the availability of labour market statistics to feed into the global sustainable development goals agenda. Labour is often one of the most important factors of production and is a major determinant of the economic system globally. Therefore, it is imperative to know whether people are working or not, how long they work, and the nature of the jobs they are engaged in.

The NLFS enables key labour market statistics and the employment situation to be monitored periodically in Nigeria. The indicators include the labour force participation rate, employment-to-population ratio, unemployment rate, time-related underemployment, self-employment, labour underutilisation, and other key job characteristics.

Key Highlights from the Results

• The labour force participation rate among the working-age population declined to 77.3% in Q1 2024 from 79.5% in Q3 2023. 
• The employment-to-population ratio was 73.2% in Q1 2024. This is a decrease of 2.4% points compared to a ratio of 75.6% in Q3 2023. 
• The combined unemployment rate and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) decreased to 15.3% in Q1 2024 from 17.3% in Q3 2023. 
• The proportion of workers in wage employment in Q1 2024 was 16.0%, which amounts to a 3.3% point increase from 12.7% in Q3 2023.
• The Unemployment rate increased to 5.3% in the first quarter of 2024 from 5.0% in Q3 2023. 
• The unemployment rate among persons with post-secondary education was 9.0% in Q1 2024, 
• The unemployment rate among youth aged (15-24 years) was 8.4% in Q1 2024, a decrease of 0.2% compared to Q3 2023 (8.6%). 
• The unemployment rate in urban areas was 6.0% in Q1 2024, the same in Q3 2023. 
• Time-related underemployment in Q1 2024 was 10.6%, showing a decrease of 1.7% from the rate of 12.3% recorded in Q3 2023. 
• 4.5% of the working-age population was in subsistence agriculture in Q1 2024.
• The Percentage of Youth Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET Rate) was 14.4%. Indicating a 0.7% point increase from Q3 2023.

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