The analysis of the labour force survey data on youth unemployment rate in Sindh, by division, shows that the overall youth unemployment rate varies from the highest rate of 11.2% for Karachi division to the lowest rate of 3.4% for Larkana division.
Research reveals that the overall unemployment rate in the Sindh province is 3.9%, with unemployment rate of females being substantially higher than males (6.6% vs. 3.3%). This rate is substantially higher in respect of the urban residents compared to their rural counterparts (5.9% vs. 2.1%).
21.9% 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% for males in the same group of education, and 23.6% in the overall case of all youth belonging to urban Sindh.
The distribution of unemployed youth, by level of education, indicates that youth having education level of ‘matric but below Intermediate’ makes up the highest proportion of unemployed youth (22.2%) while this rate was the lowest (0.1%) in respect of the youth having M.Phil. /Ph.D. degree followed by those belonging to ‘less than one year of education’ (0.4%).
The demographic analysis shows that Karachi division has the largest share in population (16.7 million) in Sindh province, whereas Mirpur Khas division has the lowest population (4.5 million). Hyderabad division has the largest share of rural population (7.1 million) while Karachi division has the largest share of urban population (15.5 million) in the province. The demographic analysis shows that Sindh alone houses 13.2 million young people aged 15-29 years. Sindh government must plan ahead and take concrete steps to benefit from this youth bulge.
Gallup Pakistan & 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 that the study pointed 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 other wise we are heading towards major social upheaval led by youth of the country".
Dr. Shahid Naeem, director of policy research at PRIDE, further elaborated that a significant proportion (around 41%) of unemployed youth have attained matric and intermediate level education in Sindh, with varying ratios for different divisions of the province. In case of Hyderabad division, this rate is around 33%; 47% in respect of Karachi division; 42% in case of Larkana division: 34% for Mirpur Khas division; 46% in case of Sukkur division; and 27% in respect of Shaheed Benazirabad division.
The statistics clearly show that the Sindh government needs to take drastic steps and introduce marketable technical as well as vocational skills within the mainstream of education, so that young boys and girls are able to secure employment after completing their education.