Trend
Official unemployment has moved within a narrow band
Q2 2024 official rate: 4.3%
Labour · Jobs·NBS Labour Force Survey · Q2 2024
Nigeria Unemployment Rate
Q2 2024
Nigeria's official unemployment rate was 4.3% in Q2 2024. This page breaks down what that means by gender, age, and urban-rural location, and also explains why the official rate can feel lower than what many Nigerians experience in the real labour market.
Latest official read
4.3%
In the Q2 2024 Labour Force Survey, unemployment was 4.3% overall, 5.1% for women, 5.2% in urban areas, and 6.5% for people aged 15 to 24.
Previous quarter
5.3%
Direction
Lower than Q1 2024
Overall unemployment
4.3%
Q2 2024 official rate
Female unemployment
5.1%
Above the male rate of 3.4%
Urban unemployment
5.2%
Above the rural rate of 2.8%
Age 15-24
6.5%
Highest age-band unemployment rate
Age breakdown
Younger workers still face the heaviest pressure
Q2 2024 unemployment was highest among the youngest workers. The drop from Q1 2024 is encouraging, but the age profile still shows where labour-market stress is concentrated.
What to remember
A low official rate can still sit beside weak job quality
Official unemployment is not the whole story
A low unemployment rate does not mean most workers are secure or well paid. Informal work, fragile earnings, and underemployment still shape daily life for millions of Nigerians.
Young workers carry the heaviest pressure
At 6.5%, unemployment was highest among people aged 15 to 24 in Q2 2024. That matters because youth job pressure often spills into delayed independence, migration pressure, and weaker confidence in the economy.
Quarterly moves can be noisy
The sharp drop in youth unemployment from Q1 to Q2 2024 suggests the labour market has seasonality. New graduates and new entrants often hit the market in waves, which can distort one quarter by itself.
Related reading