Creating quality jobs

Among the South East Asian countries, Pakistan despite having active workforce between the age of 16 and 35, representing almost 63 percent of total population is found moving very slow in improving quality of jobs particularly in manufacturing and service sectors.

India and Sri Lanka recorded rapid growth in their GDP both due to substantial increase in number of technically skilled workforce and also owing to other improved production inputs, particularly the use of updated information technology in service and manufacturing sectors. Thus along with reduction in poverty, quality as well as quantity of jobs improved substantially in these counties. This also indicates that job quality has improved within each sector of economy rather than through labour movement from one sector to another.

However Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal have experienced across-the-sector movement of labour since the last eighties. Spread of education in rural areas, though not satisfactory as depicted from recent gender parity report regarding Pakistan in particular showing rural female literacy rate at 27.52 percent and general rural being 47 percent.

However, it has facilitated transition from agriculture to better jobs in manufacturing and service industry. Massive migration of skilled workforce from South Asian countries to economically advanced countries and oil-rich economies of the Middle East have pushed real wages high for those remaining in the countries, by creating a strong demand for them in domestic labour market.

This phenomenon, on the other hand, boosted overseas workers’ remittances and has significantly contributed towards reduction of poverty in the region. This poverty reduction outcome is no doubt has been disturbed due to COVID onslaughts in recent past and growing oil crisis on global basis, affecting South East Asian region in particular.

The findings of various surveys conducted in the region relating to persistently high growth of workforce under the aegis of World Bank identify the need for generating employment opportunities for 12 million people per year by the end of 2030 when a slowdown is likely to occur in existing demographic transition trend in this region.

The reports state the sustained growth in the number of new entrants in the workforce would either be absorbed in jobs producing progressively lower output of goods and services in formal sectors or be forced to be labelled as self-employed/employed in informal sector.

Hence the challenge for whole of South East Asia is to create jobs, giving higher level of output per worker through up-skilling their talents in areas of information technologies like digitisation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). A number of East Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore are focusing these skilling strategies on moving employees from declining roles into growing ones in the next five years as stated in World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025.

Female labour participation in economic process is very low in the region, particularly in Pakistan where four out of every five women of working age are not gainfully employed, followed by India and Bangladesh where two out of every three women are part of workforce. It is their household duties which account for their non-participation. With enhanced opportunities for higher and technical education for women, and the promotion of entrepreneurial skills among those who want to get self-employed, an increased proportion of working-age women will seek work.

Hence an estimated four million jobs need to be added to female workforce every year , building up total annual figure of jobs required in the region to 15 million as per World bank findings.

Apart from this enormous challenge of creating jobs for 15 million every year, how to generate quality jobs remains the burning issue for the region. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have been identified as having large shadow/informal economies.

Lack of good governance, poorly-run institutions and excessive regulations compel workers and small businesses to slide to informal sector, where they can easily evade taxes and remain outside the purview of labour laws. World Bank survey’s report narrates how business firms faced with onerous regulation, inconsistent legal enforcement and corruption have an incentive to hide their activities in underground economy.

Actually, generally, institutions of these countries operate for benefit of a narrow elite class instead of pursuing economic well-being of masses. The prevailing political system in these countries is giving rise to unbridled shadow economies which, in turn, impeding the growth of quality jobs needed for high economic growth.

Job creation in the formal economy and utilisation of workforce at optimum level entail investment in both physical and human capital. Since development of needed infrastructure is essential for the growth of all sectors of economy, focus of governments of these nations, particularly of Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, should be to ensure regular power and water supply most needed both for rural and urban sectors.

At the same time, it is necessary to enhance quality of technical and professional education and make it accessible to youth universally and indiscriminately on the basis of merit alone. To absorb workforce skilled in latest technologies in quality jobs it is essential that they from rural areas be facilitated to move to urban sector to get absorbed in manufacturing and service industry and urban youth from lower into higher productivity jobs within the industry.

Fast development of IT industry in India has facilitated use of new technologies in all fields of economy, and it not only created high profile jobs, but also mid-level executive jobs. Through export of soft-ware and its skilled manpower, the country is earning major chunk of its foreign exchange earnings. It is heartening to note that in very recent years Pakistan has also made headway in earnings from export of IT skilled manpower and software and it is expected that it will add more than USD 5 billion to the current fiscal year’s foreign exchange earnings.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026