40 per cent educated women are jobless in Pakistan, 1.5 million people applied for peon position

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) informed the Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development that 40 per cent of educated women across the country are jobless, Nadir Guramani reports for Dawn.

The PIDE in its briefing, stated that 24 per cent of educated people were jobless, adding that the unemployment rate in the country has reached an alarming figure of 16 per cent contrary to the government’s claim of 6.5 per cent.

The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Saleem Mandviwala.

According to the PIDE, the study was done by a company abroad as no research has been conducted by the government, although several research institutes were operating in the country.

The study also states that 80 per cent of people get themselves enrolled in M.Phil after failing to get a job and they have not been included in the given statistics.

The Senate committee was told that at least 1.5 million people applied for a peon’s position in a high court that was recently advertised. “Among those applying for the job included M.Phil degree holders,” PIDE officials stated.

The officials proposed that laws should be made to grant licenses to hawkers to enable them to get a job, this would create 20 to 30 million employments for the citizens. They also debated that universities in Pakistan were approved through a “flawed” bill by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

In June, the Economic Survey 2020-21 revealed that the spread of the coronavirus pandemic had severely affected businesses and other economic activities due to the imposition of lockdowns which left approximately 20.71m workers jobless.