Unemployment rises to 12.1% in Q1 2016

THE numbers of unemployment rate as at the first quarter of 2016 has risen to 12.1 per cent as against 10.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015, says the National Bureau of Statistics.

According to the report, the underemployment rate stands at 19.1%. “the number of unemployed in the labour force, increased by 1,449,18 persons between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016 resulting in an increase in the unemployment rate to 12.1% in Q1 2016 from 10.4% in Q4 2015, 9.9% in Q3 2015 and 8.2% in Q2 2015,” the report stated.

Accordingly, there were a total of 24.50million persons between the ages of 15-64 that were willing and able to work and actively seeking work (i.e in the labour force) that were either unemployed or underemployed compared to 22.45million in Q4 2015, and 20.73 million in Q3 2015.

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The report also shows that the economically active population or working age population (persons within ages 15- 64) increased from 105.02 million in Q4 2015 to 106.0 million in Q1 2016. In Q1 2016, the labour force population increased to 78.4 million from 76.9million in Q4 2015, representing in an increase in the labour force by 1.99%.

Further analysis shows that the drop in full time employment between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016 was predominantly those within the ages 15- 24 years accounting for a decline of 0.56million people followed by ages 55-64 years (decline of 0.09million), ages 45-54 years (decline of 0.06mn) and ages 35-44 years (decline of 0.02mn). On the other hand, the number of those in full time employment between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016, within ages 25-34 increased by 0.22million.

The data also shows that there are other dimensions to the unemployment problem. Unemployment and underemployment continued to be higher for women than men in Q1 2016. While 14% of women in the labour force were unemployed in Q1 2016, another 22.2% of women in the labour force were underemployed in Q1 2016. On the other hand, 10.3% of males were unemployed in Q3 2015, while another 16.2% of males in the labour force were underemployed.