A joint research study conducted by Gallup Pakistan and Pride, using data from the Labor Force Survey 2020-21, reveals that the overall unemployment rate in Sindh has reached 3.9%. The study highlights that the highest unemployment rate is among the youth aged 15 to 29 years. Surprisingly, a significant proportion of educated youth in Sindh are unemployed compared to less educated youth.
According to Dr. Shahid Naeem, Director of Policy and Research at PRIDE, 23.6% of unemployed individuals in Sindh hold certified master’s and PhD degrees. The report further states that a substantial percentage of 41% of unemployed youth in Sindh have completed matriculation or intermediate education. This rate reaches 33%, 47%, 42%, 34%, 46%, and 27% in Sukkur and Shaheed Benazirabad divisions, respectively.
The report emphasizes the need for the Sindh government to take drastic measures to integrate technical skills into mainstream education, enabling graduates to find employment opportunities.
The Labor Force Survey covered one lakh families and highlights significant population differences among Sindh divisions, with Karachi being the largest (16.7 million) and Mirpur Khas the smallest (4.5 million). Hyderabad division has the largest rural population (7.1 million), while Karachi has the largest urban population (15.5 million). Notably, Sindh alone has 13.2 million youth between the ages of 15 and 20.
The survey data indicates that the unemployment rate among women in Sindh is higher than that among men, with rates of 3.3% and 6.6%, respectively. Rural residents also face higher unemployment rates compared to urban residents, with rates of 2.1% and 5.9%, respectively.
Karachi has the highest youth unemployment rate at 11.2%, while Larkana has the lowest rate at 3.4%.
The distribution of unemployed youth based on education level shows that those with matric but less than intermediate education have the highest unemployment rate at 22.2%. On the other hand, youth with MPhil and PhD degrees have a rate of 0.1%, while those with less than one year of education have a rate of 0.4%.
In Sindh, the unemployment rate among women with university-level education (engineering, medicine, computer science, agriculture, and other subjects) is alarmingly high at 23.6% among youth belonging to the province.
Bilal Gilani, Executive Director of Gallup Pakistan, emphasizes that this research highlights the significant number of unemployed and under-educated men and women in urban and rural Sindh, pushing them into despair.
