Some Findings on Higher Educated Unemployment in Pakistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The latest Population Census data for Pakistan indicates that the bulk of educated unemployment occurs below age thirty. These statistics suggest that educated unemployment is largely a problem of waiting or a lag in absorbtion in the labour market. Thus we concentrated on explaining the causes of waiting. To do so, we organised the information from survey data (including a sample of 2, 671 employed and 260 unemployed) we had at hand into factors indicating market realism and market strength (both competitive and noncompetitive). The unemployed themselves perceived “contacts” as an important factor affecting their success on the job market. While this feeling cannot be ignored, we found that the job and wage expectations of the educated unemployed were unrealistic and that their motivations for pursuing higher education were not career oriented. Furthermore, performance of the unemployed was considerably worse than that of a control group of the employed and they also indicated less inclination t...