ILO to Support Nigeria in Conducting Labour Force Survey

ILO News (Abuja) - The Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for Nigeria Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The gambia and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Mrs. Sina Chuma-Mkandawire has reiterated the commitment of the ILO in supporting the Government of Nigeria, social partners and other relevant partners in conducting a Labour Force Survey that will meet the international standards.

Mrs. Chuma-Mkandawire made this remarks during a workshop organized by the National Bureau of Statistics workshop on the Review of definition and methodology for computing unemployment statistics in Nigeria on 8 September 2014. She stated that the decision to set up a committee to review the Definition and Methodology for Computing of Unemployment Statistics and the most suitable definition for the Nigerian environment, while still satisfying international best practices is coming at the most appropriate time. She stated that quality statistics were increasingly needed as the basis for sound policy advice and support to countries at a time when the economy is changing fast.

She informed the participants at the meeting that the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) which held in October 2013 in Geneva, came out with new resolutions concerning statistics of work, employment, unemployment and labour underutilization that revised the existing international standards used by countries to produce their statistics on employment and unemployment.

According to her major changes in the new resolution include a conceptual framework to promote coherent measurement of all paid and unpaid work, a more refined measure of employment as work performed for pay or profit, separate concepts, definitions and indicators of participation in other forms of work, in particular own-use production work, unpaid trainee work and volunteer work, as well as broader measures of labour underutilization that complement the unemployment rate.

In his remarks, the Statistician General of the Federation, Dr.Yemi Kale said the Nigerian economy created a total of 2.48 million new jobs between July 2012 and June 2014. Dr. Kale gave the figure in Abuja while speaking at a workshop on the review of definition and methodology for computing unemployment statistics in Nigeria. A breakdown of the figure revealed that the highest number of jobs was created in the informal sector with 1.41 million, while the formal sector with 903,804 jobs and public institutions with 160,591 jobs followed respectively. Further analysis of the jobs created in the economy revealed that 427,296 and 385,913 jobs were created in the third and fourth quarters of 2012.

According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the national unemployment rate as at the end of 2013 stood at 23.9 per cent. Dr. Yemi Kale explained that the unemployment rate was based on the NBS’s adjusted definition of unemployment as against the ILO’s definition. According to him, the ILO defines employment as any work that ensures that the employed is engaged at work for at least an hour a week while the NBS’ definition puts it at 40 hours.

The Statistician General said the review became imperative since the 40 hour a week definition of employment was no longer adequate as it negates the definition of International Labour Organisation. The ILO defines employment as persons in the labour force who have been employed for at least one hour in a week. He said, “Using ILO definition strictly, unemployment rate in Nigeria for 2011 will be 2.2 per cent. Unfortunately, NBS definition also presents challenges. If you work for 39 hours a week, you will be classified as unemployed, which is also inadequate. Over the next few days, you will be working together and hopefully reach an amicable decision on how to move forward”, Kale added.