Unemployment rate falls to 5.8 percent in 2017-18: PBS survey

KARACHI: Pakistan’s unemployment rate fell to 5.8 percent in 2017-18 from 5.9 percent estimated in 2014-15, the statistics office said on Friday.

Unemployment among women markedly fell to 8.3 percent against 9 percent in the comparative period,

while for men it was remained at 5.0 percent compared to 5.1 percent previously, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ (PBS) Labour Force Survey (LSF) 2017-18 showed.

Country’s unemployment rate averaged 5.49 percent from 1985 until 2017, reaching an all-time high of 7.80 percent in 2002 and a record low of 3.10 percent in 1987.

The survey showed unemployment rate in urban areas decreased to 7.2 percent from 8.0 percent, while rural jobless rate for the period under review remained unchanged at 5.0 percent compared to the findings to last survey conducted in 2014-15.

The LSF 2017-18 found out the crude participation rate was on the lower side at 31.7 percent compared to LFS 2014-15.

The rate for males remained at 48.3 percent in the latest survey against 48.1 in the previous survey, while that of females declined marginally to 14.5 percent in the period under review from 15.8 percent in 2014-15. On the other hand, participation rate in rural areas significantly slid to 32.7 percent from 34.0 percent in the previous

survey, while it the urban areas it went up 30.0 percent from 29.0 percent previously.

The LSF 2017-18 indicated changes in employment share by major Industries. Manufacturing jobs increased to 16.1 percent in the period under review from 15.3 percent in the last survey.

The wholesale and retail trade jobs went up to 16.9 percent from 14.6 percent, transport, storage, and communication employment stepped up to 6.2 percent from 5.4 percent, while agriculture, forestry, and hunting/fishing jobs decreased to 38.5 percent from 42.3 percent previously.

Other industrial categories are approximately at the same level during the comparative period, the survey said.

Institute for Policy Reform, in a report published in 2017 said unemployment rate during the last government of Pakistan Muslim Leagues was the highest in the last 13 years, while the educated class was more than twice jobless compared to the illiterate as per LSF 2014-15.

Pakistan, an International Monetary Fund’s 2017 report says, lacks the capacity to absorb about two million youth entering the already saturated job market every year.

As a result, job-seekers tend to relocate to over-crowded cities, where the job market may be more competitive, but salaries remain low, exploitation is rife and where they are at risk without community or family support networks, the report said.

Compounding this is the problem of underemployment, where skilled and educated individuals work in low-skilled positions in an already overloaded job market.

In this context, the paper also argues that academic qualifications do not meet the demands of a fast-changing l

abour market and highly qualified graduates may find themselves unequipped for the technical demands of the job market.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) says Pakistan needs to generate 1.3 million additional jobs on average every year as the plethora of people attaining the working age most likely to rise from the current 4 million to around 5 million by 2035.

The UNDP in its National Human Development Report said growth in employment creation was necessary to match the unprecedented number of young people entering the working age.

The additional jobs to be created per year were for the next five years, report added.

The UN development arm clearly indicated that current labour force participation and unemployment rates suggest that Pakistan’s working age population includes around 3.5 million unemployed individuals.