A former Nigeria Labour Congress NLC President, Mr Issa Aremu, says Nigeria’s unemployment rate has dropped to about five per cent under President Bola Tinubu.

Aremu made the assertion while assessing the administration’s economic policies and their impact on the country’s labour market.

He said the decline reflected increased economic activity and improvements in job creation, although he acknowledged that Nigerians were still facing significant economic challenges.

Nigeria’s labour statistics are based on a methodology introduced by the National Bureau of Statistics NBS, which measures unemployment differently from the older system. The NBS reported an unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, down from 5.3 per cent in the first quarter.

Aremu said the government’s economic reforms, including measures affecting investment, production and employment, had begun to produce results.

He, however, stressed the need for policies that would ensure that economic growth translated into improved living standards and decent jobs for Nigerians.

The labour leader said employment figures should not be considered in isolation, arguing that the quality of jobs, workers’ incomes and purchasing power were equally important indicators of economic wellbeing.

His comments came amid the Federal Government’s renewed emphasis on job creation, lower production and transportation costs and broader economic prosperity.

President Tinubu, in his 2026 Independence Day address, said the economy had grown by more than four per cent during the year and pledged to shift the government’s focus towards reducing the cost of living, creating jobs and tackling poverty.

Economic analysts have also cautioned that Nigeria’s unemployment statistics require careful interpretation because of changes in the methodology used to calculate the rate.

The World Bank and other analysts have stressed the importance of considering underemployment, informality, working hours and earnings alongside the headline unemployment figure when assessing labour-market conditions.

Aremu urged the government to sustain measures that could expand productive employment and ensure that the benefits of economic growth reached workers and households across the country.