The unemployment problem

Unemployment is the situation of actively looking for employment but not being currently employed.

Where as a person is considered unemployed when he is either unable to find any job or does not own a job according to his skills and abilities.

In Pakistan, about 58 to 60 percent people are considered literate but out of them5.9 percent or 3620.00 thousand people are unemployed which is a major cause of poverty and low living standard in the country. Some of the reasons that cause unemployment are:

Lack of job opportunities

Pakistan’s industry is already highly concentrated and due to no new addition to existing industry there is always an issue of job shortage which results in increasing competition for job and people are forced to work on low income and low status jobs which is high discouragement for youth. Along with that most of employers require two to three years of experience and multiple degrees for a job which automatically exclude fresh graduates and cause an increase in unemployment.

Increasing demand for jobs

Pakistani universities have been producing over half a million graduates, including over 10,000 IT graduates, every year since 2010, according to HEC data.

The number of university graduates in Pakistan increased from 380,773 in 2005-6 to 493,993 in 2008-09. This figure is growing with rising enrollment and contributing to Pakistan’s growing human capital. But due top private universities being at every corner there is no standard kept of number of enrollments and graduates every year which is increasing demand for jobs and due to limited supply of jobs there is an increase in unemployment each time.

Loop holes in academic structure

Our institutions are highly focused on teaching theories and making students learn them by heart, there is always a deficiency of practical implementation of these theories which actually helps in practical life by developing ideal skills set for the market.

Students performance should be judged on the basis of both written and practical implementations in field (industry) each semester because lack of appropriate skills set cause unemployment.

Lack of merit based selection: When a person in power hires, grants, awards and honors his/her contacts it is considered as favoritism, cronyism and nepotism which exploits the right to job of deserving people and cause unemployment problem in the country not only this but it also effects the efficiency of firm. These days political hiring is at its peak.

No career counseling

There is no trend of career counselling in Pakistan and a student is forced to study subjects which he or she is not interested in which effects the result and cause a student to suffer unemployment instead of following his or her passion and becoming the master of that field.

Unemployment is not only a problem itself but is also causes many problems including brain drain, depression, suicides, corruption and street crimes etc. which makes the situation even worst to handle. Local and foreign investment in the country can help in increasing employment opportunities.

For example, projects like China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) can help improve the overall situation of unemployment.