Profile of Pakistan Economy

Pakistan is the world’s most populous countary. Estimated population of Pakistan was
169.9 million and anuaul growth rate of 2.05% as at end june 2009. total working age
population was 121.08 million with the size of employed labour force estimated at 52.7
million as of 2008-2009.

Table

There are approximately 7 million Pakistanis living abroad, remitting close to US dollar 8
million annually through formal channels to paistan. Worker remittance are the 2nd largest
source of foreign excange after exports.

Labouforce and Employment.

According to the size of the labour force, Pakistan is the 10th largest country of the world.
According to the labor force servey 2008-09, the labor force is estimated at 53.72 million
of the total labor force. 50.79 are employed, while 2.93 million persons are unemployed,
resulting is an unemployment rate of 5.5%

There has a decline in umemployment rate since 2003-04 accompanied by a substantial

rise in the unpaid family helpers particulary females. In 2008-09 the estimated labor force
grew 3.71 %. The force of female labor force was greater than male labor force and the
increase in female employment was greater. Employment comprises all persons ten years
of age and above who worked at least one hour during the refernce period and were either
paid employed or self employed.

Table 2.2

Umemployment rate is higher as compared to the last statistics

Table 2.3

Civilian labor force, employed and umemployed for Pakistan.

Table

Labor force participation rate

Labor force participation rate is divided into two catagories. i.e crude and refined. Crude
activity rate is the currently active population expressed as percentage of the total
population of Pakistan. Refined activity rate is the currently active population expressed
as percentage of the total population of Pakistan 10 years and above.

Table 2.4
The table shows that crude activity rate for female is higher (35.10) in the rural areas as
compared with the urban areas(8.60). Augmented activity rate based on probing
questions from the person not included in the conventional measures of labor force, to net
in marginal economic activities like substance agriculture, own construction of own
dwelling.
Table 2.4 shows that refined activity rate of female in rural area is more than in urban
area.
Table 2.5

Labor market trends for women

During the last decade, the proportion of women in the labor force has been increased in
Pakistan.
Table 2.6

The female labor force participation increased over time. It was with 21.80% in 2008 still
very low if considered from an international or regional point of view. As the table shows
in the rural areas, female participation rate is higher (28.30) than in urban area (9.70)

Women working condition in Pakistan.

Although labor market access for women improved over the years, this has not gone hand
in hand with progress in the creation of decent work opportunities for the same
Table 2.7 shows a very small portion of female work in industry and service sector as
compared to males. A vast majority of women worked in agriculture ; 7 out of 10 women
(73.80% in 2008) work in agriculture sector mainly as contributing family workers under
the tough working condition with little of no economic security.
Table 2.7

Informal sector and females

Informal employment is mostly defined as unstayble and insecure work and therefore
generally considered as non-decent. During 2008 a year characterized by supply shocks,
informal sector employment for women become a necessary survival strategy for many
families reflecting the lack of social safety nets in the country.

Table2.8
The table showes that between 2007 and 2008,the share of female employment in the
informal sector increased by1.8% point from 9 to 71.7 % compare to a 0.8% increase for
males. Formally women, informal employment is only soruce of income, speciall in those
areas where cultural norms restrict them from work outside of the home. Some women
cannot undertake regular employee working hours due to house hold responsibilities.

Employment status of women

As a result of labor related vulnarabilities people are socially weaker. They cannot
provide a better future to their families since they donot earn enough to make their living,
and they cannot hope for increased securitry.
Table 2.9
The table shows that in 2008 almost 6 out of 10 female employees were engaged in
casual of piece rate work, wage salaried workers in the county consists out of 4 sub
groups.
1) regualar employees with fixed wages (non vulnable)
2) casual paid employees
3) paid workers by piece rate or work performed
4) paid non family apprentices
the last three kind of employees lack decent work. Wage and salaried men are mostly
hired in regular paid positions (56.5%) in 2008. but wage and salaried women are likely
to be hired in more insecure employment arrangements.

Working hours of women

The fundamental inductor of productive employment and decent work is the period of
time during which the worker is bound to carry out his economic activities or duties. To
ensure sustainable developlent and competitiveness of enterprises in the country, decent
and productive working hours are essential for workers to have acceptable livelihoods for
themselves and their families. In Pakistan a normal or full time working week is thought
of 35 hours week. Workers are of 3 types according hours of time.
1) full time workers
2) part time workers
3) excessive workers

part time workers are those whose working hours are less than full time workers.
Working of 49 working hours per week if often considered as excessive and it reflects
low prodicitity for reasons including the harmful effects to physical and mental health.

Table 2.10 shows that mainly women (40.80%) works less than the threshold of 35 hours
a week even since more and more women are working full time. Proportion of female
working in the 35 to 39 hours bracket shows the strongest increase between 2000 and
2008, while the longer hours ( shows significant decreases). However there is a again an
important difference between men and women as hours of work for men.