Unemployment and People

Introduction
“Unemployment is a situation where people of a country are willing to work, able to work but cannot find jobs.”
Officially unemployment is defined as the situation of being without work, wanting work, and actively seeking work. It is usually measured as a percentage of the people in the total labor force or the total for some social group. During periods of recession, an economy usually experiences a relatively high unemployment rate. Economy of an individual is at the utmost priority of every democratic as well as welfare state. Since the dawn of human history, individual needs have been prioritized by every human being. These individual needs can be met by proper sources of employment. After the transformation of the world from a feudal to an industrial society, the needs of an individual have risen sharply, giving due importance to finance. In Pakistan, due to gigantic rise in population, individual finances have been disturbed a lot. This is because of rising unemployment.
According to Samuelson:
“Unemployment occurs if there are qualified workers who would be willing to work at prevailing wages but cannot find jobs.”
Unemployment Situation in Pakistan:
According to Economic Survey of 2010-11, population of Pakistan is 177.1 million. Total labor force is about 54.92 million out of which 51.87 million is employed and remaining 3.05 million is unemployed. Rate of male unemployment is 5.6 % and female unemployment is
Causes of Unemployment
Every year many new graduates are added into the labor force but few of them get very good jobs; some others get a reasonable one but many keep on looking for jobs for a long time. There can be a number of reasons for young men to be unemployed.
A lack of realistic approach is one of the reasons of being unemployed. Youth have their dreams and some are ambitious too. Their ambitious nature leads them to dream about very unrealistic goals in life. Degree holder youth usually aspire for a white collar job in a big company such as in a multinational. Their objective is to get a high salary. But when they don’t get such a job they keep on waiting for one and hence not only waste their time but also the opportunities to get some other low salary jobs.
Illiteracy & Literacy
Illiteracy and literacy both are the causes of unemployment in Pakistan. Due to illiteracy people are not able to work and they remain unemployed. On the other hand number of educated is increasing annually but government is unable to create employment opportunities e.g., students of B. Com. are increasing at very fast speed but they cannot find jobs and admissions for higher education. Rate of illiteracy in Pakistan is 42.3 %. As in the backward areas of country, the education facilities are not available. Only 2.7% of total GDP of the country is spent on Education. Even though there are more than 8000 ghost schools in Sindh province, which are not working but are under the control of local landlords. Government schools are unable to provide quality education due to imperfect syllabus, improper education policies, and inefficient teachers. That’s why the students are unable to build their strong base through education.
Seasonal Variation
There is seasonal unemployment in Pakistan. Seasonal unemployment exists especially in industrial sectors. For example, sugar industries and ice factories create seasonal unemployment. People only work for certain part of the year and mostly remain unemployed for remaining part of the year.
Unskilled labor
Most of the businessmen in Pakistan are illiterate, ill-trained and unskilled. They think that if they employ more persons they will have to pay more and their profit will decline. These unskilled businessmen cause nepotism and favoritism. It means selection according to relation not according to ability. Here deserving candidates do not get jobs and remain unemployed or under employed.
High Population Growth Rate
The population of Pakistan is increasing at a rate of 2.1 %. Due to this high rate about two million people enter into the labor market each year. Such huge labor force cannot be provided jobs due to backward economic condition. People are so poor and illiterate that they cannot differentiate between wright and wrong. Money is there problem. They cannot think of sending their children to school at proper age. People have no regrets on having more children. People are not motivated and are deprived of basic necessities so they cannot think beyond that.
High Age of Retirement
The higher age of retirement in government sector has closed the employment opportunities for the young, literate and trained person. In Pakistan retirement age is 60 years.
Lack of Technical and Professional Education
Like the absence of other educational services, there are very few and inefficient institutes for professional training in the country, especially in the rural areas. It is the fact that most of the youth are not properly guided and motivated to choose their proper future career. The students choose the career which does not befit their personality and nature. Thus leading to failure in professional life and they cannot find suitable jobs and if they find one, they cannot deal with the challenges of the job. Technical, professional and vocational institutions are limited in number. Nationalization of industrial units very badly affected the investment at industrial sector. The private investors shifted their capital to other countries. Downsizing in many government offices and within the private sector has aggravated the problem.
Defective Economic Planning
Young people, being major players of the market, if unemployed cause many losses to the economy in the shape of intelligence, capabilities and talent lost which could be employed to boost up the economy of the country. Unemployed youth are also considered as a burden on the economy, as they contribute nothing and consume the produce. On the other hand, families with unemployed youth and no source of income generation, as in the case of rural areas of Sindh, face many economic challenges. They lead miserable lives on account of poverty, inflation, unavailability of health, education and water facilities. Thousands of these families lead desperate lives in the rural Sindh living in small huts made of straw and having no electricity and other amenities of life.
Political Instability
Political instability is one with the successive governments failing to come up with any substantial plan to tackle growing unemployment. People have lost their hopes and find ill ways to satisfy their utmost needs. It is anticipated that if no concrete actions are taken against these problems in the coming years, the crime rate will become three times higher than the present. People will become poorer and will lose hope and trust in Government.
Defective Education at different levels
The educational system is so defective as to render the educated men unfit for useful occupations. The system of education originally devised by Macaulay in this country has proved to be a curse. It only produced clerks and no industrial education worth the name is imparted. True education means complete development of each individual’s body, capacity of brain & soul. Education is Government’s responsibility. The present system of education is defective and calls for complete overhaul.
Education in Pakistan is divided into five levels: primary (grades one through five); middle (grades six through eight); high (grades nine and ten, leading to the Secondary School Certificate); intermediate (grades eleven and twelve, leading to a Higher Secondary School Certificate); and university programs leading to graduate and advanced degrees.
All academic education institutions are the responsibility of the provincial governments. The federal government mostly assists in curriculum development, accreditation and some financing of research.
Uneducated people does not even both to give basic education to their children.it consist of education based on religion, morals and ethics. These children are also deprived of primary education and are not sent to school at proper age. The children that should be acquiring secondary education are sent to do some sort of work so that they can ease the financial crisis. The higher education is so much costly that it is not in the range of poor people. Impact of unemployment in Society
Unemployment has a range of effects on people. Some take it as a part of their life while many others become seriously depressed. Unemployment is getting a common issue and many of the jobless people are living in poverty. It is an alarming situation for us. In this article we aim to uncover the impacts of unemployment on jobless individuals and the effects of unemployment.
Psychological effects in Society
Unemployment causes depression, dissatisfaction, anxiety, hopelessness and many other negative emotional states. It is usually observed that the mental health of unemployed people is lower than that people that have job. Many of the psychologists surely believe that unemployment is associated with poor mental health. Unemployment also effect the children with unemployed fathers are at risk of `socio-emotional problems, stressful behavior, less aspirations and expectations and this behavior can become a part of their lives.
Social effects in society
The unemployment socially makes our society weak and stops the productive power. People can’t have better education or even medical treatment for their children. Otherwise people who are unemployed can’t take part in their cultural activities. All this means they are totally cut off with a society. Unemployment has negative impact on mutual relations in the family and society. The financial crisis effects on a family as being of most concern. It is a great fact that money is money and no one can deny its importance to live in society. The effect that unemployment has on the emotional side is more serious than to understand. Little things often become serious issues. Unemployed young people in such situation cannot see the future and may be subject to the influence drugs.
Economic effects in Society
Shortage of income has a great impact not only individually but on the lives of families. Due to shortage of money people cannot hang out with friends at social, sporting and cultural events. People become isolated adults get irritated and can have serious physical and mental problems. And the most dangerous aspect is that people without income can’t satisfy their material needs, so some search solution in crime. Unemployment affects the economy in so many ways. When people are not working, they will surely run short of money which effects retail and sales tax. Sales tax supports many government positions and programs. So unemployment is basically always bad for the economy.
Solution to Unemployment
Both social & economic measures can help to solve the problems of unemployment. It cannot be solved only through the personal efforts of the individuals. The joint efforts of the Government & the Public can do a lot to solve the problem.
• Effective economic planning is the need of the hour. Natural resources of the country must be developed. Large scale industrialization & modernization of agriculture on scientific lines are sure to reduce unemployment in the country. Greater attention to the development of agriculture will stop the transfer of rural population to urban areas in search of jobs and reduce the pressure on the cities.
• Cottage & agro-based industries will create more jobs opportunities for the people & must be encouraged. The self-employment schemes of the Government granting loans to the jobless to start their business are very helpful in solving the problem of unemployment.
• Unemployment-allowances from the Government to the unemployed can save the families from starvation. Philanthropist Societies that grant money to the jobless are helpful to some extent in solving this problem but self-respecting men feel degraded to live on charity and want to earn an honest living by honest toil.
• The present education system must be changed to make it purposeful. Technical & scientific education must be encouraged.
• Promotion of exports is necessary to help reduce unemployment. Vocational & training centers should be set-up. Family Planning should be followed to check the high birth rate. It is only after a long struggle that we will be able to solve this problem.
• A more efficient functioning of employment exchanges would help in reducing frictional unemployment to the minimum. Measures should be adopted for raising the share of women in employment opportunities in the organized sector.
• As a result of all these measures for the economic development of the country, the national income of the country will increase along with employment opportunities for a burgeoning unemployed population in the country.