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Pakistan
LABOR
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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