Skyrocketing Rise of Unemployment in Afghanistan

Vaas lack of jobs and work has not only concerned laborers in Afghanistan but has made the lives of literate people and university graduates quite miserable as they hardly afford their daily expenses.

This group of men who come to this square of Kabul city to have someone pick them for some labor complain that they cannot find one day of work in the whole week.

Only a few get lucky to be taken by someone for a one- or two-days’ work.

“I come here early in the morning every day but cannot find work till evening and go back home empty-handed.” Said Sayed Hossain, a laborer in Kabul.

Beyond this part of Afghan society, those who own professional university degrees complain that the lack of jobs has made their lives difficult.

Momen Khan who has studied economics says, “I have studied economics and hold a BBA degree, I applied for a job in government administration several times but received no call. I am jobless, it is very difficult to live without a job.”

These youths claim the government’s recruitment process is untransparent and not based on meritocracy which has resulted in mass unemployment and poverty in the country but the Ministry of Economy of the IEA claims other reasons to be behind the situation.

Imamudin Habibi, spokesperson of the ministry said the lack of foreign funds and infrastructure in Afghanistan is among the major reasons of poverty in Afghanistan.

“Absence of economic infrastructure in Afghanistan, a very low development in economy, recent climate changes that affected agriculture, international sanctions on Afghanistan and absence of foreign aid to Afghanistan are the reasons behind poverty in Afghanistan.” Said Habibi.

Economic analysts agree on some reasons for poverty mentioned by the government but suggest that if foreign assistance is distributed transparently and agricultural land is used properly, Afghanistan will experience a fall in poverty.

This comes as OCHA Afghanistan claimed that 29.2 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance the number which was just over 28 million earlier this year.

Although this assistance is considered to be the sole solution to contain the poverty crisis, the international aid agency complains of not being funded sufficiently to reach millions of Afghans.

The emergence of Ukraine and other crises in the world has dropped Afghanistan from priority in the world despite being the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.