TIn Pakistan, the proportion of working age population is increasing and offering a good opportunity to turn this demographic transition into a demographic dividend.
TIn Pakistan, the proportion of working age population is increasing and offering a good opportunity to turn this demographic transition into a demographic dividend. According to National Youth Policy 2008, Youth is defined as a period during which a person prepares himself/herself to be an active and fully, responsible member of the society. It is a period of transformation from family dependent childhood to independent adulthood and integration in the society as a responsible citizen. Various countries use different age groups for defining the population of youth. For Pakistan the population in the age group of 15-29 years is taken as the young population.
According to the Labour Force Survey 2012-13, Pakistan has a population of 50.32 million youth among which 25.32 million are males while 24.99 million are females. The unemployment rate of youth has decreased to 6.45% in 2006-07 from 11.3% in 2001-02 but it has again start increasing and has reached to 9.23% in 2012-13.
Pakistan has a total of 2.2 million unemployed youth. Majority of this unemployed youth are males (71%). Male youth of urban areas is more unemployed than male youth of rural areas as 75% male youth is unemployed in urban areas while 67% in rural areas. Majority of the unemployed youth in Pakistan is either 18 years old or is 20 years old as statistics indicate that 12% of the total unemployed youth is 18 years old while 11% are 20 years old. This is a serious problem because this age group is highly productive and learning period.
By analyzing microdata of Labour Force Survey 2012-13, we examined the current profile of unemployed youth in Pakistan. The education profile of unemployed youth indicate that unemployment is very low for the youth having higher education like M.phil or Phd because they get better employment opportunities. Figures indicate that only 0.1% youth having higher qualification is unemployed. Unemployment is higher for the youth who are either illiterate (18%) or have matric level qualification (21%). Youth unemployment is high for the males having matric degree (22%) and for the females who are illiterate (21%). It may be assumed that the majority of youth is unemployed because they are busy in getting education but figures indicate that 95% of unemployed youth is not enrolled at any level. This makes a huge bulk of idle and unproductive youth because they are neither in job nor in education.
Among the 2.19 million unemployed youth, a bulk of youth is unemployed for a large period and are doing nothing as figures indicate that 73% youth did not work in last 12 months. Youth unemployment is often referred to the demand side issues but an analysis of supply side indicate that 56% of the unemployed youth is not even seeking work among which a big proportion is not seeking work because they are not willing to work (62%).
The youth who are unemployed and are searching for work also have certain strict conditions. The very strict condition which they impose is that they will not migrate to get a job or to earn their livelihood. On average 22% unemployed youth is not even willing for inter-district migration and want to work in their district only. This shows that they prefer to be unemployed instead of migrating to some other area to get job.
The migration conditions are even stricter for unemployed females. In Pakistan women are socially restricted to be confined to their homes or as near to their home as possible. This is the reason that almost 30% unemployed women are ready to work but within their own village/town/city while 16% unemployed female youth is ready to work within household only.
Other than migration condition, the unemployed youth of Pakistan is also very picky in job selection. If they do not get a job of their own choice, they prefer to be unemployed. A big number of the unemployed youth is ready to work only in the government sector as full time paid employee (54%).
This point out youth’s preference of public sector over private sector. Even the male unemployed youth prefers public sector jobs. As far as female youth is concerned, they either want a full time paid employment with government (61.15%) or to be self-employed (15.41%).
National Youth Policy (2008) suggested a great emphasis on providing training to youth so that skilled youth will be able to get good opportunities in job market. But figures indicate that in 2012-13, 86% of the unemployed youth has never received any technical or vocational training. This point out implementation gaps in National Youth Policy. Among 0.30 million unemployed youth who has ever received training, 24% males received computer training while 70% females received training of tailors, sewers and related works.
This is a striking point as country is already facing a bulk of unemployed youth. There is a great need to enhance the existing programmes of skill development and vocational training in the country as it has a tremendous potential to provide employment to our youth in rural and urban areas as well as the job market abroad. The challenges ahead are to transform the demographic increase in the youth population into a productive group by engaging them in productive economic activities to accelerate the growth of Pakistan in the 21st century.
The writer is a freelancer
