By Michael Eboh

THE declining price of crude oil in the international market has continued to take its toll on the Nigerian oil and gas sector, as no employment has been created in three months, between April and June 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said. Oil and gas companies globally are threatening to reduce their workforce significantly, as low oil price has started to take its toll on the companies.

Royal Dutch Shell, had a few days ago, said it will axe 6,500 jobs this year, and step up spending cuts to deal with an extended period of lower oil prices. In addition, Total E & P Nigeria has allegedly begun the process of winding down some of its operations in Nigeria, with plans to relocate some of the staff to other departments, while it plans to disengage majority of the staff.

In addition, Total has sold its Abuja Office, and relocated all staff to its new office complex in Victoria Island, Lagos.   Also, Mr. Emeka Ene, Chairman, Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN, had confirmed that indigenous companies have begun to lay off workers and cut salaries as a way of coping with the challenges of the crude price crash at the international market.

He further said that those who could cope with the downturn in the industry have had to close shop, pending when the fortunes improved. The NBS, in its Job Creation Survey for the Second Quarter, Q2 2015, stated that a total of 141,368 jobs were created in the economy, dropping by 69.9 per cent compared with 469,070 jobs created in the economy in Q1 2015.

The Quarrying and other Minerals sector created 318 new jobs, with Coal Mining, Metal Ores and Quarrying sub-sectors creating 52 jobs, two jobs and 264 jobs respectively, while the Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas sub-sector did not create a single job. In the Manufacturing sector, the NBS data disclosed that no single job was created in the Oil Refining sub-sector, while Basic Metal, Iron and Steel sub-sector created 489 jobs; and the Electrical and Electronics sub-sector created 114 jobs.

Formalsector

In the formal sector, the NBS stated that 51,070 new jobs were generated, representing 36.1 per cent of the total jobs generated in Q2 2015. This, according to the NBS, is a decline of 61.6 per cent or 79,871 jobs when compared to the Q1 2015, and a 35.2 per cent decline when compared to the same period in 2014.

The NBS further stated that in the public sector of the economy, there was a 11.7 per cent increase in the number of jobs created making 6,395 new jobs generated in the public sector in Q2 2015. It added that the jobs generated in the public sector represents 4.5 per cent of the total jobs generated during the reference period.

“Under informal jobs, which typically consists of jobs generated by individuals or businesses employing less than 10 or those businesses operating with little or no structures, among others, are those in Agriculture and Wholesale and Retail Trade. “In the second quarter of 2015, an estimated 83,903 new jobs were created in this sector, compared to 332,403 new jobs in the first quarter of 2015; this signifies a 74.8 per cent decrease between the two periods,” the NBS stated.

The NBS disclosed that the objective of the quarterly survey is to track the number of jobs being created in the economy within a given period of time, provide multi-sectoral and policy relevant data on the employment-generating sectors, seasonality in employment and the labour market. “The Quarterly Job Creation survey is a nationwide survey, covering all 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). A sample of 5000 establishments was taken across the country covering all sectors of the economy.

“This round of the survey, for which estimates are being reported, achieved a response rate of 92.3 per cent from the establishments selected in the sample, which is highly commendable,” the NBS noted.