Heh.

That I can agree on. I wasn't planning on wasting any more time 'splaining to you anyways. I guess I just need to learn to ignore you subjects like this. Note to self: On things related to economics, pay as much attention to KoboJ as you pay to Fstranger in general.

What a waste of time and energy.

THAT IS FALSE DATA OR MEASUREMENT,FROM WHAT WE SEE COMMON SENSE WILL MEASURE AT LEAST 50%

Please Nairalanders, am so sorry for posting a different comment ont his post. Please I want you to help me send how I can post new topic on nairaland and that will be on the front page.

What kinda jobs ar we talking about?
Are they telling us a Master's degree holder who can only get a job that pays 18,000Naira or less in a private Nursery/Primary sch. or any other one man business 'cause he has to survive is employed?

NBS with their rudiculous statistic! unemployment rate in Nigeria cannot be less than 40%.

What about those that are under-employed? Can they quantify that?

989900:

What kinda jobs ar we talking about?
Are they telling us a Master's degree holder who can only get a job that pays 18,000Naira or less in a private Nursery/Primary sch. or any other one man business 'cause he has to survive is employed?

Actually in that instance, the person is employed.
I'm not even sure you can say there is significant under-employment in Nigeria, for two primary reasons: (1) Less than 1% of available jobs are top-tier jobs, and (2) there is an inverse relationship between the demand and supply of employable people in Nigeria. Meaning, we need more of artisans and blue-collar workers, while we keep producing more and more white-collar workers.

ekt_bear:

Heh.

That I can agree on. I wasn't planning on wasting any more time 'splaining to you anyways. I guess I just need to learn to ignore you subjects like this. Note to self: On things related to economics, pay as much attention to KoboJ as you pay to Fstranger in general.

Should I assume that you are pretending not to understand where @Kobo is coming from, concerning the figures that NBS keep churning out viz a viz the realities on ground?

@Topic,
I think the issue is more of NBS's inability to collate adequate statistics. They probably do not have the budget to deploy full demographics across the nation, so they rely on data from a variety of sources. Government bodies, NGOs, some private sector data, even international data, which they try to pool together and model. They'll probably have all manner of fictitious records to deal with.

Apollonio:

Should I assume that you are pretending not to understand where @Kobo is coming from, concerning the figures that NBS keep churning out viz a viz the realities on ground?

I understand that the unemployment figures may not be reliable (though that may not be her point. . . notice that she hasn't explicitly questioned the figures.)

However, that is not my point. In fact, even if strongly suspect that they are undercounting unemployment, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are wrong about the trend. These are two separate issues, I hope you see.

Anyway, I just offered an explanation for why high GDP growth and stagnant or even increasing unemployment is not impossible. In a nutshell, GDP is growing, but so is the labor force. . .

I understand that the unemployment figures may not be reliable (though that may not be her point. . . notice that she hasn't explicitly questioned the figures.)

However, that is not my point. In fact, even if we strongly suspect that they are undercounting unemployment, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are wrong about the trend. Maybe it really increased from 40% to 45% rather than whatever to 23.9% they claimed. These are two separate issues, I hope you see.

Anyway, I just offered an explanation for why high GDP growth and stagnant or even increasing unemployment is not impossible. In a nutshell, GDP is growing, but so is the size of the labor force. . .

Wot Nunsense!

ekt_bear:

I understand that the unemployment figures may not be reliable (though that may not be her point. . . notice that she hasn't explicitly questioned the figures.)

However, that is not my point. In fact, even if we strongly suspect that they are undercounting unemployment, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are wrong about the trend. Maybe it really increased from 40% to 45% rather than whatever to 23.9% they claimed. These are two separate issues, I hope you see.

Anyway, I just offered an explanation for why high GDP growth and stagnant or even increasing unemployment is not impossible. In a nutshell, GDP is growing, but so is the size of the labor force. . .

Thumbs up man, nice analysis; you are being objective. Kobojunkie was so offpoint, but i guess she was desperately trying to discredit GEJ, finding it difficult to come to terms with how GDP growth can still lead to more unemployment.

Hmmmmmm!
Normal

ekt_bear:

However, that is not my point. In fact, even if we strongly suspect that they are undercounting unemployment, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are wrong about the trend. Maybe it really increased from 40% to 45% rather than whatever to 23.9% they claimed. These are two separate issues, I hope you see.

Anyway, I just offered an explanation for why high GDP growth and stagnant or even increasing unemployment is not impossible. In a nutshell, GDP is growing, but so is the size of the labor force. . .

Stop patting yourself on the back while thinking to throw me under the BUS . . NOWHERE in my posts did I allege thet unemployment was at 40% or even 45%. NOWHERE in my post did I even allude to an increase of the nature you claim. Go back read your own post . . . and then come back to make more sense. You only succeed in telling yourself the NUMBERs MAKE SENSE To you but you never, I repeat, NEVER MADE any sense afterwards . . . not to me even.

So madam Kobo, what is your point?

These debates must be therapeutic or something for some people.

Good one KoboJ.

Yea, the ones that are "employed" earn N18,000 minimum wage. What a joke of a country. Until the NLC fight to make the wages and allowances of the legislative and executive arm of the government pegged to the minimum wage, for instance, the president and senators cannot earn more than 10x the minimum wage, Nigeria will remain a joke. Pathetic how idi0ts finds themselves in power and everyone starts to worship them. Wish most of these politicians will be given a public execution.

Wasnt expecting any better

The same NBS claimed unemployed in 2007 was at 4.9%. Then in 2010, it was at 19.7%. Now, after 2 years of straight GDP growth(average of 7%) it now claims unemployment is up.

Kobojunkie:

The same NBS claimed unemployed in 2007 was at 4.9%. Then in 2010, it was at 19.7%. Now, after 2 years of straight GDP growth(average of 7%) it now claims unemployment is up.

In other words, you're doubting the valid claims of NBS given their trend data? If I understand your argument, if the economy (GDP) grew steadily at an average of 7% since 2007, then the unemployment should have reduced or stayed at par level rather than increase.

If that's your argument, that is a valid argument; however, I would like to point a few key elements why that argument may not hold given the key components in GDP figures.

deadie:

Yea, the ones that are "employed" earn N18,000 minimum wage. What a joke of a country. Until the NLC fight to make the wages and allowances of the legislative and executive arm of the government pegged to the minimum wage, for instance, the president and senators cannot earn more than 10x the minimum wage, Nigeria will remain a joke. Pathetic how idi0ts finds themselves in power and everyone starts to worship them. Wish most of these politicians will be given a public execution.

I think the more pathetic of all this is that [size=13pt]WE[/size] allow the idi0ts to rule over us.

deadie:

Yea, the ones that are "employed" earn N18,000 minimum wage. What a joke of a country. Until the NLC fight to make the wages and allowances of the legislative and executive arm of the government pegged to the minimum wage, for instance, the president and senators cannot earn more than 10x the minimum wage, Nigeria will remain a joke. Pathetic how idi0ts finds themselves in power and everyone starts to worship them. Wish most of these politicians will be given a public execution.

I think the more pathetic of all this is that [size=13pt]WE[/size] allow the idi0ts to rule over us.

I mean think of it. You are being told that, even in the middle of all the GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS or 2006-2008, your Agricultural sector, near never missed a beat -- it continued to provide your GDP with at least 40% quarter after quarter. And then since late 2009, the reports have had it that the real GDP has maintained a 7% growth trend. That is very close to what China has been recording in the same period, but strong growth regardless, much of it championed by your Agricultural sector. I mean come on!!!

It is possible for GDP to rise without commensurate increment in employment. However, all responsible governments specifically engineer growth to occur in sectors that are labour intensive in order to boast employment.

As for people arguing with the proportion of the unemployed, you need to understand that only those skilled to work and actively looking for work are captured as unemployed. So, if you are not applying for work or do not have skills considered as employable skills, you are not unemployed whether or not you are working. So, all the almajiris in the North and Area boys in Lagos and Onitsha are not unemployed as far as this stat is concerned.

However, I must confess that I have a problem with any stat that suggests that unemployment rate in Nigeria was 4.9% in 2007.

Kobojunkie:

I think the more pathetic of all this is that [size=13pt]WE[/size] allow the idi0ts to rule over us.

I mean think of it. You are being told that, even in the middle of all the GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS or 2006-2008, your Agricultural sector, near never missed a beat -- it continued to provide your GDP with at least 40% quarter after quarter. And then since late 2009, the reports have had it that the real GDP has maintained a 7% growth trend. That is very close to what China has been recording in the same period, but strong  growth regardless, much of it championed by your Agricultural sector.  I mean come on!!!

^What do you recommend as the way out?

In a country where poverty has made many gone insane and lost their sense of value and dignity.

I agree with what fstranger/meonbooty said a day or two ago; majority of Nigerians are like prisoners serving life sentences with verrrrryyyy haaaarrrrd labour.

I don't even know if this 4.9% unemployment is from the same source (NBS). I suspect that she is mixing up data sources.

Also, I finally realize where KoboJ got this 44% from.

It appears that she was misled by this poorly written article on the Vanguard: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/nation%E2%80%99s-economic-growth-stable-nbs-boss/

He also said agriculture had continued to top the nation’s economic growth with a 43.64 per cent share in the third quarter of 2011.

It is just a mistake by the writer of the article. 43.64% I guess is what represent's agric's fraction of GDP. Not what % of the growth it was.

Notice later that the man later states himself that this is GDP, not GDP growth rate:

Dr Kale stated that the “fact that these three sectors account for over 76 per cent of GDP may explain in part why GDP growth has remained non employment generating and poverty reducing in the last few years. Agriculture is mainly subsistence in nature and until it becomes more commercial, few job creating opportunities will emanate from that sector”.

So just sloppy journalism.

This is why I asked her where she got her #s from. So much time would have been saved if she'd provided a reference rather than KoboDodging.

Notice also that the guy pretty much offers the same reasoning I do for which high GDP growth != decreasing unemployment.

passyjango:

It is possible for GDP to rise without commensurate increment in employment. However, all responsible governments specifically engineer growth to occur in sectors that are labour intensive in order to boast employment.

Heh. You are right. However, there is absolutely nothing the Nigerian government can do to fix unemployment unless it fixes electricity first.

The only labor intensive sectors fo the economy I know of are manufacturing and subsistence farming. For somewhat obvious reasons, you don't want to encourage subsistence farming

So unless Nigeria decides to tackle electricity (or alternatively, implement population control) we should expect unemployment rates to continue to rise.