Within Sindh, the Karachi division has the highest youth unemployment rate of 11.18 percent, whereas a higher share of educated youth is unemployed compared to less educated youth in Sindh.
Research conducted by Gallup Pakistan and PRIDE, using data from the Labour Force Survey 2020-21, shows that the overall unemployment rate of youth in Sindh is 3.9 percent.
The analysis of the labor force survey data on the youth unemployment rate in Sindh, by division, shows that the overall youth unemployment rate varies from the highest rate of 11.2 percent for the Karachi division to the lowest rate of 3.4 percent for the Larkana division.
Research reveals that the overall unemployment rate in the Sindh province is 3.9 percent, with the unemployment rate of females being substantially higher than males (6.6 percent vs. 3.3 percent). This rate is substantially higher in respect of the urban residents compared to their rural counterparts (5.9 percent vs. 2.1 percent).
21.9 percent of the unemployed young females in Sindh have a university degree (engineering, medicine, computer, agriculture degree in other subjects and Masters, M. Phil., and Ph.D.), while this ratio is 20.3 percent for males in the same group of education and 23.6 percent in case of the youth belonging to the urban Sindh.
The distribution of unemployed youth, by level of education, indicates that youth having an education level of ‘matric but below Intermediate’ makes up the highest proportion of unemployed youth (22.2 percent) while this rate was the lowest (0.1 percent) in respect of the youth having M.Phil. /Ph.D. degree followed by those belonging to ‘less than one year of education’ (0.4 percent).
The demographic analysis shows that the Karachi division has the largest share of the population (16.7 million) in Sindh province, whereas the Mirpur Khas division has the lowest population (4.5 million).
Hyderabad division has the largest share of the rural population (7.1 million) while the Karachi division has the largest share of the urban population (15.5 million) in the province. The demographic analysis shows that Sindh alone is home to 13.2 million young people aged 15-29 years. The Sindh government needs to plan and take steps to benefit from a large youth bulge.
Gallup Pakistan and PRIDE have joined hands to analyze and disseminate policy-relevant economic and social data for a wider policy debate in Pakistan.
Bilal Gilani, Executive Director at Gallup Pakistan explains, “The study points to a huge pool of unemployed and underemployed educated men and women in both urban and rural Sindh. We are failing this young generation by either not providing employment opportunities or avenues for doing their own business. In this environment should we continue to urge youth to go to universities or join skill-based technical education programs? These are some of the issues that need urgent attention otherwise we are heading towards major social upheaval led by the youth of the country”.
Dr. Shahid Naeem, Director, of Policy Research, PRIDE informed that a significant proportion (around 41 percent) of unemployed youth have attained matric and intermediate level education in Sindh, with varying ratios for different divisions of the province.
In the case of the Hyderabad division, this rate is around 33 percent, 47 percent in the Karachi division, 42 percent in the Larkana division, 34 percent in the Mirpur Khas division, 46 percent in the Sukkur division, and 27 percent in the Shaheed Benazirabad division.
The Government of Sindh needs to take drastic steps to introduce marketable technical skills within the mainstream of education so that boys and girls are able to get some employment or job after completing their education.
Source: Pro Pakistani
