GDP rate 8 could help to produce 1.3mn jobs: Dr Abid Suleri

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan needs to grow at 8 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to generate 1.3 million jobs per year to cater with the needs of increasing youth bulge reaching the age of getting skillful enough to get employment.

Talking to APP, the Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Dr Abid Qaiyum Sulehri said this while commenting on the National Human Development Report 2017 that has revealed the country’s working age population around 3.5 million unemployed individuals.

An additional 1.4 million or more people of working age will join the labour force every year for the next 5 years, it added.

He said the report has unveiled a serious challenge for the stakeholders in the country as the target set could only be achieved if the GDP growth rate exceeds far from the current 5.8.

There is also need to increase the opportunities in the indigenous labour market in line with the pace to bring the GDP to 8 enabling full participation in the economic transition and improved employment levels.

The industrial growth and production would also need to be expedited generating maximum prospects for the youth to discover innovative platforms and gateways for skills development contributing to acquire employment, he added.

Sulehri said this endeavor would involve all sectors of the economy disembarking on mass development and evolution.

The current economic growth rate is not commensurate with the increasing requirements of the booming unemployed youth population which needs to be addressed as the developing countries with maximum youth population are under direct threat of conflict, he added.