ISLAMABAD – With nearly 64 per cent of the country’s population under theage of 30, there is a need to have strategy to engage these youth throughquality education, skill development and jobs oriented investment.
The country needs to generate 1.3 million additional jobs by 2035 on anaverage every year as the number of people attaining working age is likelyto rise from current four million to five million.
The additional jobs to be created per year were for the next five years andemployment creation was necessary to match the number of young peopleentering the working age, said a recent report of UNDP’s National HumanDevelopment Report (NHDR).
It said that current labour force participation and unemployment ratessuggest that Pakistan’s working age population includes around 3.5 millionunemployed individuals. An additional 1.4 million or more people of workingage will join the labour force every year for the next five years.
It claimed that at the current participation and unemployment levels andconsidering the number of retirees, Pakistan needs to create 4.5 millionjobs over the next five years (0.9 million jobs annually).
The report suggested that the gradual increase in labour forceparticipation rates means added pressure on the labour market withincreased demand for employment opportunities.
It accepted that the job creation has been relatively fast in Pakistan. Itsaid that a coherent strategy adopted at the provincial and district levelacross multiple sectors with clear annual targets can help generate 0.9million jobs a year.
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It added that the challenge lay in creating jobs that also ensure betterliving standards. Expanding the formal sector, supporting entrepreneurship,building the human capital of youth and active labour market policies arekey instruments to ensure that the required growth is inclusive andsustainable.The report recommended that complete concentration on quality and not oncreating enough jobs would be equally problematic while failure to produceadditional employment opportunities could lead to 43 million people beingunemployed by 2050.
The agricultural sector, constituting Pakistan’s main source of employment(42.3 percent), has immense potential for employment generation at both thefarm and non-farm levels.The report also revealed another key sector of Pakistan’s economy,manufacturing, currently absorbs around 15.3 percent of the total employedlabour force despite being hindered by energy shortages.
The services industry, currently employing 42.4 percent of Pakistan’s totalemployed labour force, is another important sector with great untappedpotential.
The hospitality sector, accommodation and food, directly linked to tourism,accounts for only 1.6 percent of the country’s total employment. Thissector can contribute significantly to employment generation if supportedand promoted with a clear policy direction for employment generation.
Increasing economic activities and improving access to finance andtechnology would encourage significant growth and employment creation inthese sectors. – APP
