According to a recent report by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the Pakistani economy created 5.5 million jobs during the past three years, averaging 1.84 million jobs a year, far higher than the yearly average of creation of new jobs during 2008-2018 decade.
The unemployment rate in Sindh witnessed a downfall and went down to 3.4 percent in three years of the PTI government. On the contrary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded the highest unemployment rate of 8.8 percent during the last fiscal reported Labour Force Survey.
The Planning Ministry and the PBS have not yet officially released the survey, but, according to the officials of the Ministry of Planning and Development the findings were confirmed by a team of technical officials and experts.
For survey purposes, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics covered around 6,808 enumeration blocks and 99,904 households, and after a rigorous investigation found out that the total number of labor or employed population increased to 67.3 million by June 2021 from 61.7 million in 2018 – the end of PML-N tenure.
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In 2021, the rate of unemployment went up to 6.3 percent, recording an increase of 0.5 percent from 2018. In the three years, the share of employers remained the same at 1.4 percent, but the number of employees plummeted from 42.4 percent down to 42 percent. The number of own-account workers, however, soared to 35.5 percent.
Pakistan witnessed a yearly increase in job creation and averaged 1.84 million new jobs created a year, marking a significant increase in job creation compared to the tenures of the previous governments. In the five years of PML-N, the ruling party could only create 5.7 million, averaging roughly 1.14 million jobs a year.
Pakistan’s economy created 5.5 million jobs during the past three years –on an average 1.84 million jobs a year, which is far higher than yearly average of creation of new jobs during PPP & PMLN tenures, reveals findings of Labour Force Survey 2021 https://t.co/A4W3iNIGrR
— Shahbaz Rana (@81ShahbazRana) March 31, 2022
From 2008-2013, PPP created 6.9 million jobs averaging 1.4 million jobs a year. The survey findings further revealed that the average economic growth during the PML-N government was higher than the growth under the incumbent government’s rule. Under the PTI government Pakistan, for the first time in 70 years, experienced a contraction in the Gross Domestic Product.
PM Khan had promised to create 10 million jobs during his tenure, and judging by the current trajectory, the government would miss the mark only by a million. Under the survey, anybody who is ten and over and has worked for an hour was considered as employed. According to the survey, the unemployment rate fell down by 0.6 percent compared to the last fiscal year.
A sector-wise distribution showed that the share of agriculture sector in total employment fell down from 38.5 percent to 37.4 percent followed by the services sector which also recorded a decrease of 0.8 percent in the share of total employment in the three years of the PTI government. On the contrary, the share of the industrial sector in total employment grew by 1.7 percent, from 23.7 percent to 25.4 percent.
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Overall the industrial sector created 2.5 million jobs in the past three years; the agricultural sector created another 1.4, and the services sector created 1.7 million jobs.