Moshood Adebayo
A survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Lagos leads other states in job creation.
The feat of job creation recorded by Lagos, as shown in the NBS report, is the highest in the country.
The survey indicated that 740,146 jobs were added in Lagos State between July 2017 and June 2018.
Only nine states were able to reduce unemployment and underemployment rates between the third quarter of 2017 and the corresponding quarter in 2018, the report said.
The states are Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ondo and Rivers, while six states also recorded the highest gains in net full-time employment between Q3 2017 and Q2 2018.
The states are Lagos which added 740,146 net full-time jobs; Rivers (235,438); Imo (197,147); Ondo (142,514); Enugu (122,333) and Kaduna (118,929).
NBS said people often move from state to state seeking job opportunities. This, it said, could create a false impression of the status of states at a particular time by reducing the unemployment figures in some states and increasing it in others.
“States with a higher propensity for women to be housewives or stay home husbands or that have negative attitudes to working tend to have lower unemployment rates, as they are not considered part of the labour force.
“These states tend to have a higher proportion of their economically active population outside the labour force thereby reducing the number looking for work and hence the number that can be unemployed,” the report read in part.
Also, out of the five states with highest unemployed population, Lagos State recorded the lowest rate of 14.6 percent during the period under reference.