KARACHI: The overall youth unemployment rate in Sindh varies from the highest for Karachi (11.2 per cent) to the lowest for Larkana (3.4pc) divisions, according to a research conducted by Gallup Pakistan and Policy Research, Innovation, Development and Education (PRIDE).

Based on the Labour Force Survey 2020-21, the overall unemployment rate among the youth in Sindh is 3.9pc, it showed.

However, the unemployment rate among the female youth is substantially higher (6.6pc) than that among their male counterparts (3.3pc). Moreover, this rate is substantially higher for urban residents (5.9pc) versus their rural counterparts (2.1pc).

A press release on Monday said 21.9pc of the unemployed young female graduates in Sindh have a university degree while the ratio is 20.3pc for young men. It’s 23.6pc in the case of the youth belonging to urban Sindh.

The distribution of unemployed youth by the level of education indicates that young men and women with an educational level of matric (secondary school) but below intermediate (higher secondary school) make up the biggest chunk of unemployed youth (22.2pc). The rate is the lowest (0.1pc) for the youth having MPhil/PhD degrees, followed by those belonging to “less than one year of education” (0.4pc).

The Karachi Division has the largest share (16.7 million) in the population of Sindh whereas the Mirpur Khas Division comes last with the smallest population of 4.5m people. The Hyderabad Division has the largest share of the rural population (7.1m) while the Karachi Division has the largest share of the urban population (15.5m).

The demographic analysis shows that Sindh alone is home to 13.2m young people of ages 15-29 years.

“We’re failing this young generation by not providing employment opportunities or avenues for doing their own business. In this environment, should we continue to urge the youth to go to universities or join skill-based technical education programmes?” the press release quoted Bilal Gilani, executive director of Gallup Pakistan, as saying.

About 41pc of the unemployed youth have attained matric and intermediate levels of education in Sindh, with varying ratios for different divisions of the province. It’s around 33pc for the Hyderabad Division, 47pc for the Karachi Division, 42pc for the Larkana Division, 34pc for the Mirpur Khas Division, 46pc for the Sukkur Division and 27pc for the Shaheed Benazirabad Division.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023