The number of unemployed people in Nigeria has spiked to 21.8 million following the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the private sector.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put the figure of unemployed Nigerians at 21,764,617 as at the end of June as the country’s covid-19 cases almost hit 50,000.
Many private firms have rationalised their workforce and service industries have given up their sprawling office spaces and directed staff to work from home.
The statistics on the employment situation are contained in NBS’ Labour Force Statistics website, entitled “Unemployment and Underemployment Report (Q2 2020)’’ released in Abuja on August 15.
It referred to the report as an Abridged Labour Force Survey under Covid-19 for August 2020.

The data shows that my country has been severely affected by the new crown epidemic. Of course, if we compare this data with other countries, our situation should be controllable. This also shows that we must earnestly learn from the lessons of countries with severe epidemics, and we should not become the next United States, Brazil, India or other severely affected countries.