Nigeria: unemployment rate, by educational level

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the unemployment rate in Nigeria reached 17.5 percent, according to the international methodology. The most affected group was those of individuals who achieved the Certificate of Education, the Ordinary National Diploma, or nursing school (roughly 29 percent). On the other hand, the lowest figure were registered among individuals who achieved the a vocational or commercial trainings.

The NEW Nigeria methodology defines as unemployed labor force who did not work at all or worked for less than 20 hours a week. The international definition, instead, include people aged 15 years to 64 years old who were available for work, actively seeking work, but were unable to find work.

Unemployment rate in Nigeria in the 4th quarter of 2020, by educational level

Characteristic	NEW Nigeria methodology	International methodology
Never attended	28.4%	9.8%
First School Leaving Certificate	30.9%	13.1%
Middle School Leaving Certificate	24.8%	9.7%
Vocational/commercial	30%	10%
Junior Secondary	34.4%	18.6%
Senior Secondary	37.1%	22.9%
A' levels	50.7%	28%
NCE, OND*, Nursing	32%	20.3%
BA/BAs/BED/HND**	40.1%	28.8%
Tech/Prof	28.2%	14.8%
Masters	27.8%	11.6%
Doctorate	16.9%	0%
Others	28.5%	7%

Loading statistic...

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

March 2021

More information

Region

Nigeria

Survey time period

Q4 2020

Age group

15-64 years

Supplementary notes

The source adds the following information: "[...] all countries however use the International Labour Organization's (ILO) definition, or a variant of it to compute unemployment. The ILO definition covers persons aged 15–64 who during the reference period (which is usually the week preceding the time the survey is administered) were available for work, actively seeking work, but were unable to find work.
The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, like most countries in the world, uses a variant of the ILO definition such that the unemployment is the proportion of those in the labour force (not in the entire economic active population, nor the entire Nigerian population) who were actively looking for work but could not find work for at least 20 hours during the reference period to the total currently active (labour force) population. Accordingly, you are unemployed if you did absolutely nothing at all or did something but for less than 20 hours during the reference week.
Hence, the unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of the number of unemployed persons in the labour force:
Unemployment Rate=100 × (Unemployed Population)/(Labor Force Population)"

* The Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) allows an individual to work as a teacher. The Ordinary National Diploma (OND) is a diploma achieved with a two-year program, which allows you to enroll to higher education to achieve the Higher National Diploma (HND).
** Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Education, Higher National Diploma
*** Master of Science, Master of Arts, Master in Development Management

Citation formats