The National Bureau of Statistics has revealed that about 7.5 million Nigerians were doing nothing between January 2016 and December 30, 2017.
According to Vanguard, this was disclosed by NBS in its “Labour Force Statistics Vol. 2: Employment by Sector Report,” released on Sunday in Abuja.
The report shows that 77.55 million of country’s labour population of 85.1 million were engaged in some sort of economic activity for at least an hour a week; (8.46 million-1-19 hours; 18.02 million-20-39 hours; 51.06million-above 40 hours), as reflected in the third quarter of 2017 (Q3), while 7.53 million were doing absolutely nothing.
The NBS report further shows that among the 77.55 million labor population who were engaged in some extent of economic activity, 38.24% of them or 29.66 million were self-employed engaged in farming/agriculture, and 27,93% or 21.66 million were self-employed in non- farming/agriculture sectors.
“A total of 19.72 million were working for pay or wage, which was equivalent to 25.42% of the total workers in 2017 Q3. Paid apprentices and unpaid house workers constituted 7.30% and 1.11% of the total working force engaged for at last one hour a week.
The bureau further revealed that of a total employed (full time employed and underemployed which is 20 and above working hours a week) of 69.09 million, 17.88million or 25.88% work for pay/ wage, 45.47 million or 65.82% are self-employed working in agriculture (25.47 million or 36.87%) and non-agriculture related activities (20.0 million or 28.95%), 779,002 or 1.13% are paid apprentice and 4.95 million or 7.17% are unpaid houseworkers.