Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Unemployment to remain at 6.2% in 2007-08


By Ijaz Kakakhel
ISLAMABAD:
For the current fiscal year 2007-08, the number of unemployed people is forecast to increase to 3.23 million from 3.18 million.

However, the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 6.2 percent, same as it was in the last fiscal year. According to the annual plan for the year 2007-08, the population of the country is expected to reach 162 million in the current fiscal year, from 159.26 million last year.

It is also forecast that the labour force will constitute 52.16 million people in the current fiscal year from 51.33 million in last fiscal year. To reduce unemployment, the government has allocated an amount of Rs 198.4 million in the public sector development programme for the year 2007-08.

This amount will be spent on 14 projects including some new initiatives. The government has also decided to continue some of the ongoing employment generation projects in the fiscal year 2007-08. These projects include, Training of Trainers for Skill Development (Rs 12.3 million), Labour Market Requirements and Analysis System (Rs 9.1 million), Policy Planning Cell, (Rs 14.0 million) and Computerisation of the Data of Outgoing Emigrants and Returning Migrants (Rs 25.3 million).

These allocations will further the objective of the ongoing projects in the employment and labour sector. Officials in the planning commission told this scribe that creating employment opportunities is the top priority of the government. The officials said that sustaining and accelerating the current momentum of GDP growth in the current fiscal year 2007-08 would undoubtedly generate more employment opportunities.

The Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) 2005-2010 has projected an increase of 6.97 million jobs from 43.15 million in 2004-05 to 50.12 million in 2009-10. As per the labour force in 2005-06, the employed labour force stands at 46.94 million. Thus 3.18 million jobs need to be created in the next four years to achieve the targets of MTDF.

The ongoing economic reforms and expansion of vocational and technical training will further enhance the productivity of the employed labour force. Employment generation is the main focus of the MTDF that will help in raising productivity and technical competence of the labour force.

In this regard, information and analysis is needed on key labour market indicators for important insight and development of appropriate policies. Realising the fact, a project named “Establishment of Labour Market Information and Analysis” has been launched by ministry of labour. This project cross-cuts the three pillars of the MTDF employment strategy and will contribute to understanding of the labor market dynamics and its various characteristics in order to improve policy formation for employment generation, employee protection and employee enhancement.

Main objective of the project is to develop and consolidate the collection and usage of labour market information in the country. It is a pre-requisite for effective program for employment promotion, and manpower planning and development. The government has already initiated the President’s Rozgar Scheme with the partnership of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in March 2007.

The scheme covers the areas of transport, utility stores under Utility Stores Corporation (USC), mobile utility stores, mobile general store, NBP Karobar PCO and NBP tele-centre. To generate employment opportunities, the government has also kicked off National Internship Program for the benefit of fresh graduates. The objective of this scheme is to enhance their capacity and employability in the country.

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