In Pakistan, youth constitutes a major share of our working age population. This type of composition of the population presents both potential risks and benefits. On one hand, young people are more energetic, mobile and flexible while, on the other hand, these young people can present a great threat to the society if proper economic opportunities are not provided to them.
Youth in Pakistan face a number of challenges on their way to work, early start to work, failing to enter the labor market and difficulties in moving jobs. Besides, lack of education, skills and experience are some of the major issues of youth in the labor market. About 52.4 percent of young people are not part of the labor force and those who are in the labor force face significant difficulties in finding work; their unemployment rate is 22 percent which is much higher than the adult unemployment rate in Pakistan. Moreover, those who are employed are more vulnerable in the labor market as compared to adult labor. If we look at the education of youth, we find that about 32.5 percent of youth are illiterate while 73 percent of youth are not enrolled as students. Moreover, 30.5 percent of these out-of-school youth are also not taking part in any kind of economic activities (inactive).
Balochistan is the province where the unemployment rate is highest both in urban and rural areas and remains highest throughout the age of youth. At the age of 15; about 76 percent of youth is unemployed. An important point here is that even at the age of 24, youth in Balochistan face lot of difficulties in finding work, their difficulty level at the age of 24 is even much higher than the difficulties which youth face in other provinces at the age of 15. Balochistan is the province where the unemployment rate is highest both in urban and rural areas and remains highest throughout the age of youth (15-24) when compared with other provinces. Moreover, youth in Balochistan are more likely to participate in the labor force and are least likely to be inactive. This shows that youth of Balochistan are more willing to work but are unable to find work as compared to other provinces.
If we take a look at China, its major power is its labor, young labor which has boosted their economy and now they are one of the major powers. When the critics raise the points on CPEC they must admit that the industrial areas are planned to construct in Balochistan. The youth and young labor of Balochistan can be the greatest apparatus in the path of development. As far as provisional growth is concerned, it depends upon the labor forces as well. Whereas they are always the targets of insurgents because they know that these forces can speed up the development in Balochistan.
On May 13, 2017, two militants of Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) riding on a motorcycle opened fire on a group of labors working in Gwadar, Balochistan, Pakistan. The road where these labors were working was a specific CPEC-funded project, but they are part of a network of connecting roads that are part of the corridor. They need to be secured from all perspectives, wages, security and the good living standard is required to maintain a healthy society which will ensure a prosperous Balochistan.
