Labour force increased by 1.20 million

ISLAMABAD: Labour force in the country during the  outgoing fiscal 2010-11 has increased by 1.20 million as compared to the previous year as total workforce available has touched 54.92 million figures. According to a budgetary document, the population of the country is estimated at 177.10 million by the end of June 2011, growing by 2.05 percent per annum.

Pakistan is the 6th largest populous nation, shares 2.55 per cent of the total population of the world.

The Punjab province has 96.55 million population, Sindh has 42.18 million, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 23.77 million and Balochistan has 9.07 million, it said.

The document further revealed that Capital Territory of Islamabad has 1.33 million population and the Federal Administrative Tribal Areas have 4.20 million.

Pakistan’s 60 percent population will be in the range of  15-65 years of age and it will continue to increase resulting in low dependency ratio and increase working age population, it added.

The proportion of both, male and female is increased by 0.53 and  0.67 million respectively. Unemployment rate is higher than the previous year of 5.6 percent in 2009-10 and 5.5 percent in 2008-09.

Agriculture dominated the distribution of the employed persons  among all the major sectors leading at 45.0 percent in 2009-10, wholesale and retail exhibited 16.3 percent and manufacturing has the share of 13.2 percent.

It is need of the time that this major industrial out-put should  be provided proper skill training and utilize this potential for rapid industrial development in the country.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011