The unemployment rate in the country rose to 14.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016 from the 13.9 per cent recorded at the preceding quarter.
This was revealed in the labour force statistics released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The latest unemployment rate is 4.2 per cent higher than the rate recorded at the fourth quarter of 2015.
Even as the number of unemployed people in the economy is growing, the number of underemployed people is also rising.
The NBS report also disclosed that underemployed rate rose to 21.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 19.7 per cent recorded in the third quarter of the year.
The rise in the unemployment and underemployment was not unexpected considering that Nigeria recorded negative economic growth in 2016, forcing many employers of labour to retrench staff.
