PM Imran approves national job portal for youth
Prime Minister Imran Khan approved establishment of a National Job Portal to offer opportunities to the unemployed youth of Pakistan. He gave the approval during a meeting with Special Assistant on Youth Affairs Usman Dar held. The Prime Minister said that youth is a precious asset of Pakistan and it is priority of the present government to empower them. On the occasion, Dar briefed the prime minister about the Kamyab Jawan programme and progress on the provision of loans to the youth. He also gave a detailed briefing regarding the National Job Portal besides holding consultations for the Tiger Force. The National Job Portal is part of the digital transformation of the country initiative and will facilitate the unemployed youth to find employment in public sector. The job portal will also offer citizens with verified information regarding career opportunities. Keeping in view merit and transparency, the jobs will be posted by a well-developed back end portal, which assists the employer in hiring the deserving candidates only on merit. Under the initiative, federal departments and agencies will be bound to advertise vacancies on the portal. Prime Minister who chaired a meeting of the Policy Committee overseeing the Prime Minister’s COVID Relief Fund to review funds utilization details said that Pakistanis are the most giving nation and their generosity is legendary. Full transparency will be ensured in using donated funds”, Imran Khan assured the meeting. Furthermore, statistics showed that the fund received 4.8 billion rupees donations from within Pakistan and overseas. Rupees 1.08 billion were donated through international donors while 3.8 billion rupees were contributed locally. Earlier this year, the Prime Minister had publicly proclaimed two policies with respect to this fund, committing that these funds would be disbursed by the Ehsaas Emergency Cash to assist the COVID-19 job loss affectees.
A matching funds policy was also proclaimed which stipulated that for every rupee donated into the fund, 4 rupees would be matched through the government of Pakistan and to complete this promise, 19.55 billion rupees have been matched through the government. This amount has supported 2 million families, each of which received 12,000 rupees each as Ehsaas Emergency cash by this funding stream. The PM COVID Relief Fund has set a new precedent, in terms of transparency and track-ability of donated funds. The population composition of the country is skewed towards working age population. Furthermore, the statistics also showed that the population falling in the age group of 15-64 years is 61.4 percent, while 12.1 percent of the population is between the ages of 0-4 years and 22.1 percent is between 5-14 years. If this demographic dividend is harnessed and skills are imparted to youth to meet domestic and international market requirements, it would increase industrial productivity at home and higher remittances from abroad. The Government is therefore focusing on employment generation through skill development. Employment is considered as a key mechanism through which the benefits of the growth can be distributed to the poor segment of the society. Pakistan has the 9th largest labour force in the world with a population growth rate of 1.94 percent. However, with such growth rate a large number of young labour force is adding every year. According to the Labour Force Survey 2017-18 the total labour force was 65.5 million in Pakistan2, while unemployment rate is 5.8 percent. According to the survey, the highest unemployment (11.56%) is among the age of 20-24 years, indicating youth unemployment.
