The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released its unemployment and underemployment report and it noted that another 1.5 million Nigerians became unemployed in the first quarter of 2016.

In the report, released Friday, the NBS said Nigeria’s unemployment rate grew from 10.4 percent in the last quarter in 2015 to 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016.

This is remarkable because the numbers had been stable in the third and fourth quarters of 2015. It had more detail on the composition and power of the labour force.

“In Q1 2016, the labour force population (i.e. those within the working age population willing, able and actively looking for work) increased to 78.4 million from 76.9million in q4 2015,” the report said.

“This means an additional 1,528,647 economically active persons within 15-64 entered the labour force i.e. were able and willing and actively looking for work between January 1 and March 31 2016.

“Within the same period, the total number in full time employment (did any form of work for at least 40 hours) decreased by 528,148 persons or 0.97%.

“This consists of people who lost their jobs and were either forced or for various reasons chose to move from full time employment to underemployment.

“Within the same period, the number of unemployed in the labour force, increased by 1,449,18 persons (increase of 518,000 between Q3 and Q4 2015) between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016.”

The report also sounds the alarm about youth unemployment, which has risen to 42.24 percent. 15.2million youths are unemployed in Nigeria.

“Accordingly, out of a total youth labour force of 38.2 million (representing 48.7% of total labour force in Nigeria of 78.48mn), a total of 15.2mn of them were either unemployed or underemployed in Q1 2016 representing a youth unemployment rate of 42.24%,” the report said.