The youth employment crisis has reached intolerable dimensions. Currently, a considerable portion of the youth of Pakistan is unemployed. According to the World Bank statistics 2014, in Pakistan about 8.6 percent Youth is unemployed. This crisis has become a great threat to the economic, political and social stability of Pakistan. The frustration and anxiety among the youth about their future prospects featured a common Question. What is our Future? Our Politicians and leaders always ignore this crucial question and remain busy in their own disputes. The selfish attitude of our politicians indicates that they do not even bother about the problem of young generation and the educated people of the country hold no worth in their eyes.
The chronic unemployment deserves urgent attention. The reasons behind this issue must be analyzed first. First and the foremost reason is the bad policies of the government that has no proper or well-organized plan to place young educated people who have completed their education. Another reason is job saturation in the job market. A large number of students are going into the same profession and there not being enough job opportunities for all of them.
The crisis is not only about quantity but about quality as well. In Pakistan, most of the students are working, but are not earning enough money from their work to lift themselves out of Poverty. Government is offering temporary employment opportunities, internships and short duration of fixed-term contracts. My question is whether these temporary jobs act as stepping stones towards permanent employment? Is it a permanent solution?
The painful result of this situation is that people are moving abroad and committing suicides. According to UNICEF, Pakistan has second largest youth bulges. Out of 180 million, 60 percent of Pakistani’s population comprises of youth. In Pakistan, youth is not a priority and partner of the government but a vulnerable portion of a society. Due to the absence of National youth policy, youth is scattered, disorganized and marginalized.
Therefore, there is a pressing need to adopt new policies. The government of Pakistan should adopt youth entrepreneurship promotion programs and to ensure entrepreneurship culture among youngsters. The government should develop a policy to support productive employment and economic diversification. The government should improve the quality and relevance of education according to the Labor market demands. A well-planned mechanism for bringing investors and skilled youth together is needed.
The government should provide a dialogue platform, especially on youth employment crisis. Entrepreneurship courses should also be included in the curriculum, while science parks should be established in universities. I request the policymakers to take this issue seriously.
