Key highlights
- A new class category called “ Temporary Absence “was introduced which counts leave hours.
- Employed revised to 15 and above working for pay or profit regardless of their working hours
- Underemployed revised to Individuals who work 1-39 hours and are available for more work.
Nigeria’s statistic agency, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed the revised standard (19th ICLS) is now used to capture employed and unemployed Nigerians.
In the new standards, any Nigerian above the age of 15 and above, who works for pay or profit regardless of hours is considered employed.
NBS disclosed this in a tweet on Monday, in a response to lower working class conditions that may have not been captured as employed earlier under the 13th ICLS standard.
In the infographic, NBS said a number of refinements have been introduced to the operational definition of unemployment and related measurement guidelines based on accumulated Nigeria practice, divided into the Previous Standards (13th ICLS) and Revised Standard (19th ICLS)
Employed
Previous Standard: 13-63 years working for 20 hours or more for pay or profit.
Revised standard: 15 and above working for pay or profit regardless of their working hours.
Unemployed
Previous: 15-63 who did not work or worked less than 20 hours.
Revised: 15 and above who are not employed seeking employment, and available for work.
Underemployed
Previous: Employed but working between 20-30 hours.
Revised: Individuals who work 1-39 hours and are available for more work.
Temporary Absence
Previous: This class was not captured in previous reports.
Revised: Employed individuals who did not work for the past 7 days due to working time arrangements or leave.
What this means
As Nigeria’s unemployed level is expected to be above 40%, the new standards may mean even more Nigerians may be classified as “underemployed”, seeing as it now captures 1-39 working hours. However, the report is expected to offer analysts a better understanding of formal work, with the introduction of the temporary absence class which counts leave, which is usually given in middle-class and skilled jobs, with the data point of how many Nigerians are offered leave per year or on leave, it could lead to estimates of the true number of Nigeria’s middle class which has been disputed by analysts over the years.
