Nigeria recorded employment of 106.69 million persons aged between 15 and 64 in the second quarter of 2016, a 0.65 per cent higher than 106.00 million recorded in the first quarter.
This is contained in a statement by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday and signed the Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale.
Kale said economically active population or working age population such as persons between 15 and 64 years increased from 106.00 million in first quarter to 106.69 million in second quarter of 2016.
“This represents a 0.65 per cent increase over the previous quarter and a 3.02 per cent increase when compared to second quarter of 2014.
“In the second quarter of 2016, the labour force population (those within the working age population willing, able and actively looking for work) increased to 79.9 million from 78.5 million in the first quarter of 2016.
“This represents an increase of 1.78 per cent in the labour force during the quarter,’’ he said.
According to Kale, this means 1.39 million persons from the economically active population entered the labour force, that is, individuals that were able, willing and actively looking for work.
“This magnitude of this increase between first and second quarters of 2016 is smaller when compared to four quarter of 2015 and first quarter of 2016, which was an increase of 1.59million in the labour force population.
“ Within the reference period, the total number of person in full time employment (did any form of work for at least 40 hours) decreased by 351,350 or 0.65 per cent when compared to the previous quarter and also decreased by 749,414 or 1.38 per cent compared to second quarter of 2015.’’
He said with 106.69 million and 79.9million, it meant 26.8 million persons within the economically active or working age population decided not to work for one reason or the other in second quarter of 2016.
“Hence, were not part of the labour force and cannot be considered unemployed,’’ Kale said.
The bureau described the unemployed as those who were actively looking for work but could not find work for at least 20 hours during the reference week.
“Accordingly, you are unemployed if you did absolutely nothing at all or did something but far less than 20 hours during the reference week.’’
NBS also put the value of share capital imported by different sectors of the economy at $202.70 million in the second quarter of 2016.
The figure represents a 16.77 per cent decline against 84.17 per cent recorded in 2015.
“Capital is either imported in the form of shares, or directly imported by different sectors of the economy.
“In the second quarter of 2016 the value of share capital imported was estimated to be $202.70 million, which as for capital importation as a whole sets the record for the lowest value for the second consecutive quarter.
“The figure represents a decline of 16.77 per cent relative to the previous quarter, and a decline of 84.17 per cent relative to the same quarter of 2015,’’ Kale said.
The bureau’s chief noted that this was a smaller year on year decline than in the previous quarter, in which it was 87.41 per cent.
Kale said the share capital accounted for 31.32 per cent of total capital imported, less than half its share in the second quarter of 2015 of 70.41 per cent and the lowest level in seven years.
“Nevertheless, share capital still accounts for a larger proportion of total imported capital than any individual sector.
“For the first time on record, the sector to import the largest amount of capital was servicing, which accounted for $130.98 million, or 20.24 per cent of the total.
“ This follows a large increase when the Direct – Equity Portfolio – Equity Portfolio – Money Market Instruments Other – Loans value was $12.83 million in the second quarter of 2015,’’ he said.
The bureau said the increase also recorded when the value was $55.05 million in the previous quarter.
“In all previous quarters, the sector to import the most capital had been either Banking, Financing, Production or Telecommunications.
“For the second consecutive quarter, production was the sector to import the second largest amount of capital,’’ Kale said.
This sector, he said, imported 92.62 million dollars, equivalent to 14.31 per cent of the total, following a quarterly increase of 14.86 million dollars, or 19.10 per cent.
The bureau’s chief also said capital imported by the production sector increased by 80.92 per cent year-on-year.
Kale said there were six sectors that recorded no capital importation in the second quarter of 2016.
“These sectors are fishing, marketing, hotels, tanning, transport and weaving,’’ he said.
The bureau’s chief said half of the 20 sectors recorded a decline in the amount of capital imported relative to the previous quarter.
“The largest fall was in the electrical sector, which recorded 61.32 million dollars less.
“By contrast, telecommunications recorded the largest increase, and imported 64.10 million dollars more than in the previous quarter.’’
