Michael Eboh

The impact of the reform in Nigeria’s power sector is yet to be felt, as the electricity sector generated 4,937 new jobs in six months, between January and June 2014, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has disclosed.

Giving a breakdown of jobs generated by sector, the NBS, in its 1st and 2nd Quarter 2014 Job Creation Survey Report, stated that the power sector, which it described as electricity, gas steam, and air conditioning supply sector generated 12 new jobs. This represents 0.02 per cent of the total of 76,018 jobs created in the country in Q1 2014.

The report further revealed that the sector accounted for 4,925 new jobs, about 6.25 per cent of a total of 78,755 new jobs created in the second quarter of 2014.

However, additional data from the report revealed that the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, has started to take its toll on the Nigerian economy. The oil and gas sector, which the NBS classified as Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas sub-sector under the Mining and Quarrying sector, did not record any new jobs in both Q1 and Q2 2014.

In general, the NBS said, “In the first quarter of 2014, a total of 240,871 jobs were created, which increased by 18,482 jobs or 7.67 per cent in the second quarter, to reach a total of 259,353 jobs created.

“The total number of jobs created in the first half of 2014 was therefore 500,224. Relative to the first half of 2013, this was a decrease by 151,851 jobs or 30.36 per cent.”

The NBS further stated that in the first quarter, the informal sector had the highest new jobs with 158,894 jobs or 65.97 per cent of the total, while the formal sector was second highest with 76,018 or 31.56 per cent of the total and public institutions took the least share of the total with 2.47 per cent, equivalent to 5,959 jobs.

In the second quarter, the NBS stated that formal jobs represented 78,755 jobs or 31.56 per cent of the total, informal represented 175,786 jobs or 65.97 per cent of the total and public institutions represented 4,812 jobs or 1.86 per cent of the total.

Continuing, the NBS said, “In the second quarter, annual growth in jobs created was greatest in the informal sector, increasing by 63,219 jobs, or 56.16 per cent from the corresponding quarter of 2013.

“Formal job creation showed slightly negative growth of 1,657 jobs or 2.06 per cent, yet public institutions showed a significant decline of 23,263 jobs or 82.86 per cent, meaning that by second quarter, it represented just 1.86 per cent of total jobs created; a decline in its share of 0.62 per cent points.

“Yet, the share of informal jobs expanded by 1.81 per cent points to constitute 67.78 per cent of the total, whilst the portion of formal jobs declined by 1.19 per cent points to 30.37 per cent of the total.

“The sector with the highest quarterly growth was the informal sector, which grew by 10.63 per cent, generating an additional 16,892 jobs in quarter two.

Formal job creation also expanded on a quarterly basis, increasing by 2,737 jobs or 3.60 per cent to 78,018 jobs in the second quarter, whilst job creation in public institutions declined by 1,147 jobs or 19.25 per cent.”

The NBS Job Creation Survey Report for the first, second, third and fourth quarters of 2013, had revealed that despite accounting for about 70 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue, the oil and gas sector was the least employer of labour in Nigeria in 2013.

According to the report, out of the 10.97 million employed in 2013, the oil and gas sector, which it described as the crude petroleum and natural gas sector accounted for 582 jobs, representing 0.01 per cent of the total.