A recent report by the UN, which has placed Pakistan among the lower middle class economies, has revealed  that it will be seemingly difficult to seek a well-paid   employment opportunities in the new year  as compared to last year. Since Pakistan is on the floods plain so it will remain exposed to high risk of  natural disasters and the economic meltdown is going to persist, with job opportunities to be difficult task not only at home but also abroad as the world economy is also in recession.

As a matter of fact, misfortunes and adversaries never come alone, they say. The same can be applied to current economic scenario of the country, where the common man is beset with a series of adversaries ranging from price-hike to inflation to unemployment, which are breaking their backbone.

In fact, unemployment at times of double digit inflation is something that proves detrimental to people from working class strata of the society. Yes, the latest statistics on the genie of unemployment are really disappointing and points to rather difficult times for the masses in the post pandemic situation when food prices have escalated beyond imagination, rupee has lost its worth and inflation is at its peak.

It ought to be mentioned with concern that the steep rise in jobless rate in our country has increased to an alarming 16pc contrary to the government’s claim of 6.5pc. What is more concerning is that unemployment among educated youth, both male and female, is more prevalent than other segments of the society.  As par the latest report by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) presented before the Senate Standing Committee that 24 per cent of educated people were jobless at the moment. The PIDE also told the committee that 40pc of educated women were also unemployed countrywide.

Though the government attributes the rising unemployment to corona pandemic but the fact is that unemployment is on the rise since the takeover by the PTI government.

According to the government’s own estimate jobless is on the rise and as par the recent report, the country is faced with the situation of unemployed educated people, particularly jobless graduates.  Providing jobs, particularly to the youth, is a formidable challenge and highly important to develop and utilise capabilities of the younger generation and it remains to be seen how the government come to terms with the requirement of this challenge. The hair-raising statistics on unemployment of educated ought to be enough to shake the government out of its deep slumber but that does not seem to be case as education and employment is not among the priorities of the current government. What is more painful is that the unemployment rate among degree-holders is almost three times higher than the other overall unemployed workforce. This is attributed  to the mismatch between the education being imparted and the need of the economy to sufficiently absorb fresh graduates. But the question is what the government is doing to address this drawback of our education system.

Till now no mega plan is in sight to work on increasing employment opportunities for the degree holders.

Just imagine, the Senate committee was told by PIDE

that at least 1.5 million people applied for an extremely lower position job in a high court that was advertised in the media recently. Among those applying for the peon-position in the High Court were included M.Phil degree holders as well.

The irony is that govt does not have an exact number of educated youths as no research was being done at the government level. Some studies are being  done but that are done with the help of funds from abroad.

This indicates that the government is not concerned about the state of educated youth and has chosen to ignore something as crucial as educated people lining up for menial work just to make ends meet.

According to the government’s annual plan 2020-21, Pakistan has the 9th largest labour force in the world which is increasing with the passage of time. But these claims stand in stark contrast with the ground realities.

Pakistan’s economy has badly affected by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. This adverse economic situation has resulted in decline of employment opportunities due to halt in various business activities, decline in import and export and cut in production due to supply chain disruption. All these factors also resulted in increase in unemployment and it seems the pandemic has created a sort of employment crisis along with the health crisis.

The unplanned population is also a major factor for unemployment. Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with it s estimated to reach 280m by 2030. And it is lamentable that an overwhelming number of young people are not in education, employment or training at present which speaks volume of the government inability to work for the youth.

The irony is that the government claims to be empowering the poor by provide financing opportunities through banks to the low-income segments of society, for which it claims to have launched an ambitious Rs4.1 trillion Kamyab Pakistan Program. The government claims that this programme will go a long way in empowering the downtrodden and link them with the mainstream economy as through this proramme, the lower middle and the poor classes will be able to mingle with the mainstream economic activities. And, it is also claimed that over 3.7 million families will benefit from it.

But such claims do not hold water in the wake of increasing unemployment of educated youth and with the government inability to provide them with jobs to make them stand on their own feet. Providing a financing is one thing and making the youth standing their feet is totally another.

The country witnessed such financing schemes in the past as well, but they could not achieve the desired results as the real issue is the lack of employment opportunities.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 21 2023

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