The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released its Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) for the First Quarter 2024, revealing a significant increase in rural unemployment. The figure now stands at 4.3%, which is a growth of 1.4%-points from 2.9% reported in Q1 2023 and a rise of 0.3%-points from Q3 2023.
According to the report, the global labour force participation rate has dipped to 77.3% for the first quarter of 2024, a decrease of 2.2%-points from 79.5% recorded in Q3 2023. Participation in the rural areas was 82.5% while that in the urban areas was 74.0%.
The report draws attention to the prevailing working conditions in both rural and urban settings, rather shockingly, 97.6% of the rural population is engaged in the informal sector while this figure is only 89.0% for urban areas.
The challenge however is that it is the agricultural sector that remains the top employing sector in Nigeria’s rural populace with 40.7% of the rural inhabitants working in it. However, the sector faces challenges, contributing to the rise in rural unemployment.
There is an increase in the number of unemployed who have lost hope among the rural population from 3.0% in Q3 2023 to 5.0% in Q1 2024. This indicates that more and more rural Nigerians are getting tired of waiting for job opportunities.
Time-related underemployment in rural areas stood at 11.8%, a decrease from 12.3% in Q3 of the year 2023. Labour under-utilisation, which combines time-related underemployment and also unemployment, stood at 15.6 %.
This situation has been aggravated by the insurgency in the rural areas which has caused the displacement of people, abandonment of farmlands and a general reduction of economic activities.
Food insecurity and poverty are serious issues in Nigeria and a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended that the country should include rural areas within its cash transfer program.
