Last week, the prime minister announced the launch of Pakistan’s first-ever National Youth Employment Policy while speaking at a ceremony marking International Youth Day. The policy aims to create more employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people and includes a 35 per cent quota for women in the labour force, along with a 10 per cent annual quota for young startups. The PM also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to equipping the youth with modern technological and skill-based education, acknowledging the demands of a fast-paced, tech-driven era while also emphasising the importance of equal educational opportunities for all, particularly talented and deserving students. The fact that it has taken this long for a country where around two-thirds of the population is under 30 to even develop a policy focused on getting these young people jobs is breathtaking. As such, this youth employment policy is quite belated and one must underscore that its success or failure, and that of similar initiatives, will likely define this country’s economy. When we talk about youth in Pakistan, we are essentially talking about the vast majority of Pakistanis. And, currently, that young majority is not faring very well.
While the working-age population has expanded from 159.8 million to 179.6 million, the unemployment rate has spiked to 7.1 per cent. The country is failing to create jobs at the pace its youth bulge requires, to say nothing of the quality and security of the jobs being created. And while the youth employment policy talks about young startups and equipping youth for a tech-driven era, nearly 28 per cent of children aged five to 16 years are out of school, and education spending is only 0.8 per cent of GDP. Right now, it seems that the state is having a hard time equipping its young people for any kind of job, let alone ‘fast-paced’ tech ones. While education authorities are making an AI course compulsory for all degrees and the latest budget reportedly set aside over Rs5 billion to train 120,000 youth in IT and digital skills, these efforts need to be scaled up. As things stand, even if current youth initiatives are successful, they may remain too narrow to truly uplift the country’s development profile. Pakistan’s working-age population has the dual role of financing the country’s basic needs and its debts. This puts tremendous pressure on young startups and other businesses, so the country will need many of them.
For now, it is encouraging to see that the youth employment policy is not all rhetoric and actually includes some measurable targets. The aim of having a 35 per cent labour force quota for women seems particularly promising given the development multiplier that comes from having more women engaged in the economy. To build on this policy, the government must explicate a pathway from the status quo to achieving its goals. This will likely increase the urgency of fixing the out-of-school problem and how it disproportionately impacts women, increasing education spending and creating an environment conducive to business development and growth. That is something that, sadly, Pakistan has not attained despite the economic stabilisation of recent years. However, when it comes to young people and the economy, it is important to remember that ‘as the youth fares so the country fares’. This is something we cannot afford to get wrong.
