A fair, responsive, and comprehensive labour and employment policy is vital not just for improving productivity and competitiveness, but also for sustainable and inclusive development. Unfortunately in Pakistan, the job market is chaotic and directionless.
The government’s lack of intent and capability is aggravating the situation. After the 18th amendment in 2010, the federal ministry of labour and manpower was disbanded and the subject was devolved to the provinces.
Four years later, the i provinces are still in the process of dealing with the added responsibility. Some work has been done in Punjab and Sindh with assistance from the International Labour Organisation to better understand the labour market and to meet standard obligations demanded by trading partners, but the overarching policies have yet to be evolved.
Meanwhile, the private sector is doing little as well. While some of them, forced by demands of international trade, did introduce and strengthen their human resource departments and trained their staff, a collective action has not been visible.
Many government publications have stopped reporting about manpower. The annual Economic Survey of Pakistan offers a generalised chapter based on the labour force survey.
The country’s labour force swelled to 59.7m in 2012-13 — the 10th largest in the world —according to the latest Economic Survey of Pakistan. About 56m are reported to be gainfully employed. The labour force participation rate for women is lower, and the male participation rate in the 30-45 age group is almost 100pc.
“The informal sector generates the higher level of employment, 73.6 pc in 2012-13, as compared to the formal sector’s 26.4pc,” it said.
The multiple and archaic labour laws, which largely go unimplemented, mostly cover just the formal manufacturing sector, which, according to official data, employs a limited portion of the total workforce.
