People display placards during a Labour Day parade in Nigeria
People display placards during a Labour Day parade in Nigeria, May 1, 2010. REUTERS

Nigerian unemployment rises to 21.1 pct of the labour force in 2010 from 19.7 pct in 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)said on Friday.

Out of the total labour force of 61.5 million, the unemployment rate, which is the proportion of labour force, not the entire population, that is available, willing and able to work or not working for at least 40 hours a week on average, was 21.1 percent (12,979,125 Nigerians) in 2010. This represented a 1.4 percent increase over the 2009 figure of 19.7 percent, Yemi Kale, the head of NBS, told reporters in Abuja.

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