News: 119,905 Full Time Formal Jobs Created - National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) - Contrary to insinuations going on in some quarters that Government is paying deaf ears to the growing unemployment situation in Nigeria, the National Bureau Of Statistics (NBS) says the Federal government has so far created a total of 119,905 full time formal jobs in quarter four in 2012 when compared to the 145,032 jobs created in quarter one of 2013, indicating an increase of 20.96 percent in full-time employment between the two quarters.

The NBS also said it is heartwarming to note that out of this number, Nigerian women filled 53 percent of the jobs created during the period under review. "However this gender equality was not maintained across all sectors, industries that employ a large female majority were, health and social work as well as other community social and personal services" it stated.

These were contained in the NBS fourth quarter 2012 & first quarter 2013 job creation survey recently released to the media. It said that on the other hand, part time employment of 29,293 jobs, which is put at 9.62 percent, declined to 32,112 in quarter four,2012.

According to the report, the top three sectors that produced the highest numbers of full time jobs in quarter 2012 were Education followed by Finance Intermediation, then Health and Social Work.

Similarly, in quarter one of 2013, the same sectors maintained the top three positions for generating full time jobs indicative of the huge investment of resources in these sectors, particularly in the education and Health sectors. "Overall part time employment declined by 9.62 percent between the two quarters, like full time jobs created, Education makes up the largest share of part time in both quarter four of 2012 at 65.47 percent of all part rime jobs created and 53/56 percent in quarter one, 2013", it further stated.

The survey also said that other community and personal share of 18.88 percent was the second largest sector of new employment in quarter four, 2012 and 26.74 percent in quarter one, 2013 adding that the largest increase of 86.09 percent between the two quarters came from manufacturing, this time contributing a substantial increase of 7.47 percent of all new part time jobs.

Further disaggregation of full time jobs by age Group according to the survey indicates that in both quarters, the majority of full time jobs were created in the age groups of between 25-35, with 54.75 percent of new jobs created in this category in quarter four of 2012, declining by 2.87 percent points to 51.88 percent in quarter one in 2013. "This is followed by the 15.25 age group, which holds 22.17 percent of new jobs created in quarter four, 2012".

It said that the large share of new jobs taken up by people of ages 15.35 is reflective of the mild successes being achieved in the government youth employment policy through various interventions such as the YouWin which is targeted at the youths. "Although only constituting 4.64 percent of jobs, the age category of 45.59 showed over a 100 percent increase from the 2.26 percent of new jobs that the age category held in quarter four in 2012" the survey remarked.

Source: The Guardian