Insight · JobsNovember 7, 20262 min read
Nigeria’s workforce in numbers
Most Nigerians work, but few have formal jobs. The latest labour force survey in numbers: 4.3% unemployment, 93% informal employment, 85.6% self-employment, and what that means for employers competing for formal talent.
Six numbers that tell the story
Ask how many Nigerians work and the answer is: most of them. Ask how many have a formal job, with a payslip, pension and PAYE, and the answer is: few. The NBS labour force survey shows both, and the gap between them shapes how employers hire.
Most people work
In the second quarter of 2024, 79.5% of working-age Nigerians were in work or looking for it, up from 77.3% the quarter before. Unemployment was 4.3%: 5.2% in towns and cities and 2.8% in rural areas.
That rate surprises people used to older estimates above 30%. The difference is method. Since 2023 the NBS has followed international standards, under which anyone who worked for pay or profit for at least an hour in the reference week counts as employed.
Nigeria's labour market, Q2 2024
The latest quarter in the NBS Nigeria Labour Force Survey at the time of writing.
Few work formally
93.0% of employment was informal: 97.5% in rural areas and about 90% in urban areas. 85.6% of people in work were self-employed, and only 14.4% were in wage employment, down from 16% the quarter before.
The formal payroll
The clearest window on formal employment is the pension system. There were 11,391,008 retirement savings accounts in August 2026. Not every account holder contributes every month, and not every formal worker is in the scheme, but the number shows how narrow the contributing workforce is.
Formal employment is where the rules bite: the minimum wage for establishments with 25 or more workers, pension for employers with three or more, PAYE, NHF, NSITF and ITF. Our True Cost of an Employee report adds them up.
What it means for employers
- Formal, experienced talent is scarce, so the full package matters: pension paid on time, clear payslips and leave that is honoured.
- Compliance is a recruiting advantage. Candidates check whether pension is actually remitted.
- Many new hires will be moving from informal or self-employment and need a proper induction to payroll, tax and pension.
- Good records protect both sides. The employers that can prove what they paid and remitted are the ones that grow without disputes.
How we made this
Labour market figures are from the NBS Nigeria Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2024, as reported in the press, which was the latest quarter available at the time of writing. Pension membership is PenCom data for August 2026. The NBS adopted the International Labour Organization's current definitions in 2023, so these rates are not comparable with figures published before then.
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Sources
- NBS says 85.6% of working Nigerians are self-employed (Nairametrics, November 2024)
- Unemployment rate drops to 4.3% in Q2 2024 (The Guardian)
- Self-employment lowers Nigeria's jobless rate to 4.3% (BusinessDay)
- Nigeria's pension assets grow by ₦3.8 trillion in eight months (Nairametrics)
- National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria Labour Force Survey
