PBS just published updated data and estimated Pakistan’s unemployment rate at 6.3%. This is in contrast to recent headlines, where Pakistan was lauded for achieving the lowest unemployment rate - at 4.3% - in the South Asian region. So, why the difference? By Zunairah Qureshi
T
he Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Thursday finally published the results for the 2020 - 2021 Labour Force Survey (LFS) which estimates the unemployment rate at 6.3%. However, only a week earlier, a Twitter post by the South
MACRO-ECONOMY
Asia Index stated that Pakistan with a 4.3% unemployment rate “outranks other South Asian countries with lowest un-employment rates in the region.” As the country was embroiled by political chaos, in the background the government attempted to continue to shine light on the successes of their term in power and PM Imran Khan did not miss the chance to highlight this post by retweeting it and adding that, ‘we
handled the Covid pandemic - better than all the countries in South Asia.’ So then why the difference in rates reported by this unverifiable Twitter page and the LFS data? Sure the post could be gimmicky but that’s not the only thing to consider here. The post lists down unemployment rates of seven countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives)
23
