Udoma: Rise in Unemployment Rate, Not Same as Job Losses

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, on Thursday explained that although the unemployment figures released recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated an increase in the unemployment rate, it is not the same thing as job losses.

The minister said the increase in the unemployment numbers was not because jobs have not been created by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, but was as a result of the shortfall in the rate of new job creation opportunities vis-a-vis the rate of new entrants into the job market.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Communication to the minister, Mr. Akpandem James, Udoma said as its generally known, employment growth usually slows down during a recession and takes some time to recover.

However, he assured Nigerians that government is working hard to ensure that many more jobs are created so that the rate of job creation runs much faster than the rate of new entrants to the job market.

Fielding questions from journalists and members of the public during the breakdown of the 2019 budget proposals in Abuja, Udoma stated that an examination of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  numbers actually show that the Buhari administration has a positive net job creation record of 1,640,398.

“This is exclusive of the 11.1 million persons that the NBS classifies as people who do some form of work but are considered to have worked too few hours to be officially considered as employed,” he added.

This, the minister added, means that many casual workers in farms might be among the 11.1 million workers who the NBS enumerators may have felt did not work for enough hours to be considered as employed, adding that agriculture is an area in which the Buhari administration has made massive strides.