As the issue of unemployment continues to be a source of concern for Nigerians, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that the country’s unemployment rate has risen from 18.1% to 23.1%.
It was gathered that the statistician general of the federation and chief executive officer of NBS, Dr Yemi Kale, took to his Twitter page on Wednesday, December 19, to make the disclosure.
He Tweeted: “Unemployment rises from 18.1% in Q3 2017 to 23.1% in Q3 2018. Partime employment/Underemployment remains at to 20.1% in Q3 2018 from 21.2% in Q3 2017.”
Recall that the federal government said on Thursday, November 8, that the increasing number of unemployed youths in the country poses a great threat to the nation’s security and socioeconomic development.
Olusade Adesola, the permanent secretary, ministry of youth and sports development, said this at a multi-stakeholder meeting on the ‘Nigerian youth employment action plan and global initiative on decent jobs for youths’ in Abuja.
The programme was organised by the sports enterprise and promotion department of the ministry, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Adesola reportedly said that youth unemployment remained a great challenge in the country and there was an urgent need to mitigate the problem and provide opportunities for economic engagement of the youths.
The official said: “To this end, the government with support from the ILO, developed the youth employment action plan which targets youths between the ages of 18 to 35, to address the fragmentation and harness technical and financial resources for meaningful impact.”