…As unemployment rate rises to 13.3%
By: Our Correspondent
Nigeria is now officially in recession, this is as the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday released a report of the Gross Domestic Product figures for the second quarter of 2016 with the GDP growth rate sliding downward from -0.36 per cent in the first quarter to -2.06 per cent year-on-year.
The downward growth rate in the second quarter of this year further confirms of the predictions by the Federal Government and economists that the country was heading into recession.
It would be recalled that earlier thios year, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun had said the nation was in a technical recession.
But with the figures released by the NBS it confirmed that the nation is in recession.
According to the GDP report released by the NBS, “In the second quarter of 2016, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product declined by -2.06 per cent (year-on- year) in real terms.
“This was lower by 1.70 per cent points from the growth rate of –0.36 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter, and also lower by 4.41 per cent points from the growth rate of 2.35 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015. Quarter on quarter, real GDP increased by 0.82 per cent.”
Similarly, the bureau has also said the country’s unemployment rate has risen from 12.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year to 13.3 per cent as at the end of the second quarter.
This was contained in the bureau’s unemployment report which was released by the Statistician General of the Federation in Abuja.
The report shows that the number of people that were unemployed or underemployed increased from 24.4 million as at the end of the first quarter to 26.06 million persons.
“The number of underemployed in the labour force (those working but doing menial jobs not commensurate with their qualifications or those not engaged in fulltime work and merely working for few hours) increased by 392,390 or 2.61 per cent resulting in an increase in the underemployment rate to 19.3 per cent in Q2 2016 from 19.1 per cent in Q1 2016.
“During the reference period, the number of unemployed in the labour force, increased by 1,158,700 persons, resulting in an increase in the national unemployment rate to 13.3% in Q2 2016 from 12.1 in Q1 2016.
“In view of this, there were a total of 26.06 million persons in the Nigerian labour force in Q2 2016, that were either unemployed or underemployed compared to compared to 24.5 million in Q1 2016,” the report reads in part.
