Essay on Unemployment, Its Causes and Solutions

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Human life by its very nature inclines to work. Most people work for keeping their body and soul together, but very few works only for pleasure. The absence of work or unemployment virtually transforms the individual into meaningless existence. On the contrary, employment provides the individual with the chance to participate in society and improves his worth, status, and dignity. So, the terms employment and unemployment are poles apart from each other regarding their impacts on society.

“An unemployed existence is a worse negation of life than death itself.” Gasset

[the_ad id=”17141″]Unemployment means the lack of employment. In other words, it means man’s inability to find work or any job according to his qualification and aptitude. In today’s world, unemployment is found everywhere on the globe. It is no longer temporary and manageable. It has rather become an international problem being faced by even the rich and advanced countries of the world. The virus of unemployment is creating more panic and sense of insecurity than any other virus of the most deadly disease.

In Pakistan, this problem is more acute than in western countries. Perhaps we have a larger army of the unemployed young men than the actual army of the country. Generally, the graph of unemployment keeps on changing according to the industrial and economic development of a country.

“If any body would not work, neither he should eat.” New Testament

Unemployment is obviously the root of many evils and crimes. It spells starvation, disease, and death on its victims. The young people who do not have any job or any source of income ultimately become indifferent to right and wrong, good and evil. Corruption, dishonesty, sin, crime, and vices of all kinds are the natural outcome of unemployment. From the political point of view, unemployment is extremely harmful because it breeds discontent and a sense of insecurity in the masses.

 

The Problem of Unemployment

Votes can be easily bought and sold in the society where unemployment prevails. Mob violence and revolutions are also the results of unemployment. The person who is unable to find any job cannot pay proper attention to his duties and rights as a citizen. A man with the empty stomach cannot be expected to be a true patriot.[the_ad id=”17142″]

“Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart.” William Butler Yeats

Constant joblessness can shake his most sincere devotion to the country and his nation. Financial problems and worries often drive their victim towards inferiority complex, self-hatred, and lack of confidence. So, a country with high unemployment rate is literally bound to face the music in terms of chaos, restlessness, lawlessness, and terrorism.

In Pakistan, the unemployed persons can be counted in millions. A lot of planning is going on without any positive results so far. Almost all the professions are overcrowded. Even a graduate with first class is unable to find any job in any offices or schools. There is absolutely no scope left in the medical profession. It has become very difficult for the young doctors to find any job in government hospitals. The bar also offers no chance for a beginner due to a large influx of lawyers in this profession. The field of engineering has also no more scope for the young and promising engineers. This has been a hopeless and gloomy picture of our country for many years.

6 Main Causes of Unemployment

The causes of this widespread evil are quite obvious and self-evident:

  • Firstly, our education system is surely defective. It is only producing more and more clerks. As Pakistan is an advancing country, it obviously needs skilled hands. A young man having general and liberal education hates manual labor. Though education is the responsibility of the government; the private sector has also come on the front and things are getting better due to the professional approach of the private institutions.
  • Secondly, Pakistan is not an industrial country. This is the reason that we cannot absorb many of our educated young people in the industry of the country. So we will have to expand our industrialization by setting up more and more factories in order to provide young people more and more job opportunities.
  • Thirdly, over-urbanization is one of the major causes of increasing unemployment. Thousands of people from countryside and villages are coming towards the big cities. in order to seek better job opportunities and for the education of their children. This huge and rapid migration has also made the situation worse than ever.

    Men come together in cities in order to live; they remain together in order to live the good life. Aristotle

  • Fourthly, many labor-saving devices including modern machinery and computer have also thrown many manual workers out of employment. These are being preferred to manual workers for quicker mass modern devices production.
  • Fifthly, the rapid growth of population is also the important cause of unemployment. The dragon of overpopulation is swallowing all our resources with horrifying speed. The population of Pakistan is growing day by day, but our resources are still the same that we had fifty years ago. So, more population means more problems and more unemployment.
  • Sixthly, the lack of political stability and proper political infrastructure also gives birth to joblessness. Rapid changes in the governments and political instability surely create a sense of insecurity for the foreign investors and the local investors as well. So, the quick succession of the governments, with every government introducing new plans and steps, reduces the chances of employment on permanent patterns.

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“Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King

Apart from the causes mentioned above, there are some occasional causes of unemployment including bad harvest, floods, earthquakes, continuous rains, strikes, and revolutions, etc. Discriminatory attitude towards the workers on the basis of race, sect, color, age, and sex is also responsible for this cancer of unemployment. Keeping in view the resources of the country, every government is trying to solve this problem in its own way.

 

9 Possible Solutions Unemployment

However, the following steps can be extremely fruitful in this respect:

  • Firstly, the government should check a large number of villagers who rush towards the big cities. They should be provided with reasonable job opportunities at their doorsteps.
  • Secondly, technical and vocational colleges should be opened at a large scale in order to train people for useful and productive fields of life.
  • Thirdly, discrimination on the basis of sex, color, and caste should be abolished from the country. Women should be given equal chances of employment.
  • Fourthly, we will have to take practical steps to lessen our dependence on foreign help or debt. We will have to adopt the policies of self-reliance, and for this we will have to increase the rate of our economic development.
  • Fifthly, the defective education system should be revolutionized in order to fulfill the changing needs of modern age. More and more universities with practical approach should be set up in both the public and private sectors.
  • Sixthly, revolutionary steps should be taken in the field of agriculture. The tracts of wasteland should be distributed among the poor and unemployed villagers. Better irrigation facilities, better seeds, and better techniques should be provided to the farmers in order to get better results.
  • Seventhly, self-employment schemes should be introduced and reasonable funds should be provided to the educated and skilled jobless people. Corruption and exploitation of government officials in this regard should be checked relentlessly.
  • Eighthly, the policy of early age retirement can also solve this problem to some extent. Corrupt officials should be terminated without fail. In this way, a lot of posts can be vacant for the jobless youths.
  • Ninthly, Pakistan is an over-populated land of the globe. The government should make sincere efforts to control the rapid increase of population. Conferences, seminars, and workshops should be held to inform the people about the devastating effects of the population explosion. Mass media should play its role, in this respect.

[the_ad id=”17144″]The campaign against the rapidly rising population can solve the problem of unemployment and under-employment to a great extent.

“Of all the explosions, it is the population explosion that I fear most.” W. C. Hudson

Moreover, sound economic planning, expansion of trade, industrial development, better literacy rate, political stability, and foreign investment will also be greatly helpful in solving the problem of unemployment. Briefly, man has conquered the seas and market moon with his footsteps. Man has virtually harnessed the forces of nature to his service. The man has reached the great heights of scientific progress. But in spite of all this, he is literally powerless to combat the dragon of unemployment.

“Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, and shares the nature of infinity.” William Wordsworth, The Borderers

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