Lagos state has reduced unemployment rate within one year, says NBS

A total of 740, 146 jobs were added in Lagos State between July 2017 and June 2018, a survey of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as captured in its recently released report has revealed.

The achievement of job creation recorded by Lagos, as shown in the NBS report, is the highest in the country.

According to the report, only nine States were able to reduce unemployment and underemployment rates between the third quarter of 2017 and the corresponding quarter in 2018.

The States include Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ondo and Rivers, while six States also recorded the highest gains in net full-time employment between Q3 2017 and Q2 2018.

The said states are Lagos which added a total of 740,146 net full-time jobs; Rivers (235,438); Imo (197,147); Ondo (142,514); Enugu (122,333); and Kaduna (118,929).

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, people often move from state to state seeking job opportunities.

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This, it said, could create a false impression of the status of States at a particular time by reducing the unemployment figures in some States and increasing it in other States.

“States with a higher propensity for women to be housewives or stay home husbands or that have negative attitudes to working tend to have lower unemployment rates, as they are not considered part of the labour force in the first place.

“These States tend to have a higher proportion of their economically active population outside the labour force thereby reducing the number looking for work and hence the number that can be unemployed,” the report read in part.