Statistics bureau denies releasing report about 85% employment rate and creation of millions of jobs

by Tunji Andrews

Contrary to reports making the rounds, the National Bureau of Statistics, has come out to refute headlines saying Nigeria created 1,500,000 jobs in 6 months nor did Nigeria record an employment rate of 85%. The NBS in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of Labour & Productivity, National Directorate of Employment and Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, conducted 1st and 2nd Quarters of 2014 National Job Creation Survey.

The survey was conducted from July to September 2014. It covered the informal, formal sectors and public institutions in 36 states & the F.C.T. with the aim of making available, information and data on employment generation in Nigeria through the application of appropriate statistical methodology. Data from this survey also reveals the breakdown by sector, gender and age.

Background to the Survey

In recent times, Nigeria together with most countries in the world has been facing problems associated with unemployment as a result of an increase in population. In addition to this, is the expanding number of students/ candidates gaining admission into tertiary institutions in recent years. This in turn has led to a large turnout of graduates without the corresponding number of available jobs.

The fact that these new graduates are competing for relatively fewer jobs in the formal job (together with the accumulated pool of unemployed over previous administrations) as opposed to the informal sector where more jobs can be created has compounded the problem. This has been a major challenge for successive administrations since the 1990’s.

To address this challenge, each administration has come up with its own policy to curtail the challenge. The results have varied across the years with recorded cases of little progress. As with previous governments, the present administration is in the process of transforming the economy, through the Transformation Agenda, that is hoped will provide enabling environment, part of which involves the provision of infrastructure so as attract investors to set up industries in the country.

It is anticipated that this will culminate in the creation of more jobs within the Nigerian economy. In Nigeria, job creation has been a top a priority for policy makers under the present administration. Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME’s) play an important role in employment generation and economic recovery. Micro, Small and Medium enterprises are the biggest contributors to employment across the country and contribute more to employment in developing nations like Nigeria.

Not only do small firms and mature firms employ the largest number of people, they also generate the most needed jobs across the country’s income group.

The Statistics available showed that employment has been growing marginally. The average growth rate of employment in the economy between 2005 and 2010 was 3.4%, about the same pace of estimated population growth. Employment generation and poverty reduction are cardinal objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the economic transformation of the present government.

Several programs and interventions have been introduced by the present government to create more jobs for young people and also ensure that the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive is put in place. Evidently, jobs are being created in the formal sector as shown by the increasing expansion of bank branches and expansion of activities of internationally and local wholesale and retail trading establishments including large supermarkets e.t.c. moreover, the fact that jobs are being created is manifested in the various websites of Nigerian recruitment or job web sites such as Jobberman publishing several thousand of vacancies every week.

It is however, important to track these jobs supply to compare with demands as well as to track the degree of success or otherwise of the various job creation initiatives of government. It is only if these jobs being created are larger than the jobs being supplied that we can force down the unemployment rate. Accordingly, adequate and timely information on jobs is necessary. This is what specifically informed the quarterly tracking of jobs by the NBS.

It is important to note here that NBS employs the internationally accepted definition of a job which is a task or piece of work (legally done) that is done especially to be paid. It therefore doesn’t consider how much is paid and whether or not this is sufficient. It also doesn’t consider whether the job fully utilizes the employees’ full qualifications or time. It is still a job by international convention. The above concerns are covered under another series of indicators such as poverty or living standards. These issues should therefore not be mixed up

Summary of Jobs Created: Q1 and Q2 2014

In Q1 of 2014, a total of 240,871 jobs were created, which increased by 18,482 jobs or 7.67% in the second quarter, to reach a total of 259,353 jobs created. The total number of jobs created in the first half of 2014 was therefore 500,224. Relative to the first half of 2013, this was a decrease by 151,851 jobs or 30.36%.

In the first quarter, the informal sector which is where most jobs created from agriculture reforms and wholesale and retail trade and MSMEs in general will be found had the highest new jobs with 158,894 jobs or 65.97% of the total, formal sector was second highest with 76,018 or 31.56% of the total and public institutions took the least share of the total with 2.47%, equivalent to 5,959 jobs.

In the second quarter, formal jobs represented 78,755 jobs or 31.56% of the total, informal represented 175,786 jobs or 65.97% of the total and public institutions represented 4,812 jobs or 1.86% of the total. In the second quarter, annual growth in jobs created was greatest in the informal sector, increasing by 63,219 jobs, or 56.16% from the corresponding quarter of 2013. Formal job creation showed slightly negative growth of 1,657 jobs or 2.06%, yet public institutions showed a significant decline of 23,263 jobs or 82.86%, meaning that by Q2 it represented just 1.86% of total jobs created; a decline in its share of 0.62% points.

Yet, the share of informal jobs expanded by 1.81% points to constitute 67.78% ofthe total, whilst the portion of formal jobs declined by 1.19% points to 30.37% of the total. The sector with the highest quarterly growth was the informal sector, which grew by 10.63%, generating an additional 16,892 jobs in quarter two. Formal job creation also expanded on a quarterly basis, increasing by 2,737 jobs or 3.60% to 78,018 jobs in the second quarter, whilst job creation in public institutions declined by 1,147 jobs or 19.25%.

Survey Approach

The approaches adopted for data collection are categorised into formal sector jobs, Informal sector and Public sector jobs. Formal jobs refer to employment generated in establishments that employ 10 persons and above, or formal professional services that employ less than 10 persons. Informal Sector is covered at the Household level and is a residual of Formal and Public Sector jobs from Total Employment generated.

It is jobs such as those generated by individuals or household businesses employing less than 10 or those businesses operating with little or no structures e.g. those in Agriculture and Wholesale and Retail Trade. While The Public Institutions are the Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), Government Parastatals, Academic and Research Institutions at Federal, State and Local government levels.

Sample Design

In the Formal Establishment Component, five thousand (5,000) establishments were covered. Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) method was used in allocating the number of Establishments by state and by sector. Also considered in the allocation was the contribution of the sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Systematic random selection technique was used to select the sampled establishments within the sector.

Other criteria used in selection of establishments were Employment Size and response history. Under the Public sector, a total of three thousand, one hundred and forty-one (3,141) public and academic institutions originally targeted for coverage were covered at Federal, State and Local Government levels on Census basis.

 

Comments (10)

  1. issorai. we knew it was a lie

  2. So how many have been created so far?

  3. Wrong statistics.

  4. Too long to read. where do i start from?

  5. Boasting of what they didnt do. shioooor

  6. how come we still have unemployed youths in the country?

  7. They keep deceiving us like we dont whats going on.

  8. So what is the way foward?

  9. So who do we believe now?

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