"The combined unemployment rate and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) decreased to 13 per cent in Q2 2024 from 15.3 per cent in Q1 2023," the NBS said.

Nigeria's unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics has said.

The bureau said this in its Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) report for Q2 2024 released on Monday.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 per cent in the second quarter from 5.3 per cent in Q1 2024.

A breakdown of the report showed that the labour force participation rate among the working-age population increased to 79.5 per cent in Q2 2024 from 77.3 per cent in Q1 2024.

The report said the employment-to-population ratio was 76.1 per cent in Q2 2024. This, according to the bureau, is an increase of 2.9 percentage points compared to 73.2 in Q1 2024. Year-on-year comparison shows a slight decrease from Q2 2023 at 77.1 per cent.

"The combined unemployment rate and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) decreased to 13 per cent in Q2 2024 from 15.3 per cent in Q1 2023," it said.

The NBS noted that informal employment remains high at 93 per cent.

According to the report, the unemployment rate among persons with secondary education was 7.6 per cent in Q2 2024.

It added that the unemployment rate among youth aged (15-24 years) was 6.5 per cent in Q2 2024.

"The unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.2 per cent in Q2 2024, this is significantly higher compared to 2.8 per cent in rural areas.

"Time-related underemployment in Q2 2024 came down to 9.2 per cent from 10.6 per cent recorded in Q1 2024," the report said.

It noted that 3.7 per cent of the working-age population was in subsistence agriculture in Q2 2024.

"The percentage of youth not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET Rate) was 12.5 per cent. Similar to previous quarters, the share of females was higher than males," it said.