By Samia Khalid ISLAMABAD, April 04 (INP-WealthPK): According to the World Bank’s South Asia Index, Pakistan has the second-lowest rate of unemployment at 4.3% in the region after Bhutan’s 3.6%. The unemployment rate of a country is the percentage of people in the labour force who are jobless, i.e., unemployed people among those who are able and/or willing to work. Among other factors, it takes population growth into account, and thus increases in the labour force, as well as the age of the population. The South Asia Index of the World Bank showed that the unemployed rate of Pakistan was 4.3%, compared to Afghanistan’s 11.7%, India 8%, Maldives 6.3%, Sri Lanka 5.9%, Bangladesh 5.4%, Nepal 4.7% and Bhutan 3.6%. Pakistan’s unemployment rate from 1991 to 2020, as per World Bank, ranks 29th in the Asian region among 47 countries. The average for 2020, based on 47 countries, was 6.81%. The highest value was in Palestine at 25.89%, and the lowest value was in Qatar at 0.21%. According to World Bank data, unemployment in Pakistan fell below 1% in 2010. However, it is presently on the increase again, reaching slightly over 4.3%. Majority of Pakistan’s population is associated with the agriculture sector. Nevertheless, services such as tourism, banking, and information technology account for the majority of the country’s GDP. While agriculture remains crucial to Pakistan’s economy, the services sector is gaining traction, and more people are migrating from the rural to metropolitan regions in search of work. In March 2020, the government announced a record fiscal and monetary stimulus plan of Rs2.5 trillion (6 percent of GDP or $16 billion). The stimulus package is centred on providing emergency cash assistance to 15 million people through the Prime Minister’s Ehsaas programme. This was Pakistan’s largest ever social welfare transfer, reaching approximately 45% of the population. Pakistan also started “Skill for All” Programme to provide skills to young population of Pakistan, successfully creating 50,927 jobs all over the country. The programme has 14 areas to serve as a catalyst for the transformation of the entire technical education and vocational training (TEVT) system in the country, enabling youth to become skilful, well-groomed, and aptly employed. Now, Pakistan aims to generate one million jobs through skill development in the next phase of the Kamyab Jawan project, “Skill for All”. The programme has enabled the individuals to acquire and advance their respective technical skills. It has allowed them to utilize their skills and create new and improved opportunities for themselves. The second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will result in the generation of jobs through industrialization and socio-economic advancement. The focus of the CPEC’s second phase is on industrial growth, agricultural production, poverty reduction, and social sector development, among other things. Both Pakistan and China are looking at new ways to increase cooperation in vocational and technical education alongside CPEC routes in order to give technical training to locals and provide human resource assistance for future CPEC projects.