Nigeria's official jobless rate looks enviably low. The reality is alarmingly different...
When the National Bureau of Statistics announced that Nigeria's unemployment rate had fallen to 4.3% in the second quarter of 2024—down from 5.3% in Q1—the government could be forgiven a moment of self-congratulation. After years of subsidy reforms, currency devaluation, and painful fiscal tightening, here at last was vindication: Africa's most populous economy was approaching what economists call "full employment." There was
