According to a Labour Force Survey, one out of every 10 people of the total population was added to the pool of the unemployed, with the unemployment rate further increasing to 6.5 percent.
The unemployment rate increased from 6 percent to 6.5 percent during the October-December period of 2012 – an increase of 8.4 percent over the same period of 2011.
In urban areas, the unemployment rate only increased by 2 percent to 10.1 percent.
However, unemployment in rural areas increased to 5 percent from 4.3 percent, showing an increase of 16.3 percent. This indicated that there had been an alarming increase in the jobless rate, in contrast to the claims of the previous Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government that it had pumped in an additional Rs800 billion in the rural economy to create more jobs.
Another figure showed that there was no real improvement in the living standards of rural areas. All persons aged above 10 who work at least one hour per week were defined as employed persons regardless of whether they were paid employees or self-employed. The agriculture sector employed 45.5 percent of the working force, which is lower than the 46.3 percent ratio of the corresponding period of 2010-11. Yet it remains the single largest sector in terms of job creation.
The PPP-led coalition government in its five-year tenure tried to support the rural economy by increasing support prices of various commodities. In particular, the rates for wheat were increased from Rs425 per 40 kilogramme in 2008 to Rs 1,200 per 40kg in 2013. The government did not, however, focus on increasing per acre yield, which remained stagnant.
The survey showed that roughly 400,000 people become jobless, which experts term an alarming figure.
Moreover, the 6.5 percent figure does not depict the true picture of unemployment and poverty in the country as 27.1 percent of the employed force has been shown as “contributing family workers”, who are neither paid in cash nor in kind, according to the government’s own definitions. A person who works without payment in cash or in kind on an enterprise operated by a member of his household or other related persons is termed as a contributing family worker.
