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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
Between independence and the early 1990s, the labor
force
grew rapidly, reflecting the high population growth and
the
subsequently burgeoning proportion of the population under
twenty
years of age. The data available concerning employment are
only
estimates because few concrete facts are available.
Official
labor force figures represent orders of magnitude and are
not
precise. Observers agree, however, that relatively few
women
participate in the formal nonagricultural labor force.
In FY 1992, the civilian labor force was estimated at
33.8
million, compared with 26.3 million in FY 1982 and only
10.4
million in 1951 (see
table 9, Appendix). In FY 1993, about
48
percent of the civilian labor force was engaged in
agriculture,
13 percent in industry, 7 percent in construction, 13
percent in
trade, 5 percent in transportation and communications, and
14
percent in other services. Only about 25 percent of the
official
labor force are wage earners, which reflects the high
levels of
casual enterprise, family businesses, and self-employment.
Agricultural employment, although increasing, has
expanded at
a slower rate than the total labor force for most of the
period
since independence. In the 1960s and 1970s, owners of
mid-sized
farms turned increasingly to managing their own holdings,
displacing former tenants. Increased mechanization
displaced
agricultural laborers. Industry, the major growth sector
of the
economy, was unable to absorb sufficient workers. From the
early
1960s until the early 1990s, the proportion of the labor
force
employed in the industrial sector remained steady, while
the
proportion working in trade, construction, and
transportation
rose. Official estimates placed unemployment at around 3
percent
in the late 1980s, but this rate rose in the early 1990s
to
around 6 percent. Underemployment is a greater problem and
is
particularly evident in agriculture, construction, and
trade.
Overseas employment partially compensates for the
insufficient job market. Since the mid-1970s, a growing
number of
Pakistanis, mostly men, have gone to labor-deficient,
oil-exporting countries in the Middle East, where wages
are much
higher than at home. Estimates vary on the number of
Pakistanis
working overseas. In the early 1990s, some observers put
the
number of Pakistanis working in the Middle East as high as
4
million. These workers range from unskilled laborers to
highly
skilled professionals such as engineers, accountants,
teachers,
physicians, and nurses.
In the early 1990s, Pakistanis sent home remittances of
between US$1.5 billion and US$2.0 billion a year, or over
30
percent of Pakistan's foreign-currency earnings and almost
5
percent of GNP. These remittances raise domestic
purchasing power
significantly. After the mid-1970s, wages of skilled and
unskilled workers in Pakistan rose substantially, affected
to a
considerable degree by the competition for workers from
abroad.
Data as of April 1994
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