The Explorer: Journal of Social Sciences

ISSN: 2411-0132, Vol-1, Issue (1):25-28

www.theexplorerpak.org

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SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS FACED BY YOUTH DUE TO UNEMPLOYMENT IN RAWALPINDI

Nadia Ilyas Department of Anthropology PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi

Corresponding Author: Nadia Ilyas PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi nadiailyas37@gmail.com

Abstract: Unemployment is one of the dilemmas that have entangled the Pakistani society. Its negative impact on the

economic development of a country is undeniable. It hinders the economic growth by squandering the abilities of youth. The research aims to identify the social and psychological effects of unemployment on the youth. It also examines the response of their families towards them and the consequent problems being faced by the unemployed youth. The area of the research was Faisal Colony in Rawalpindi, from where a sample of one hundred and five was selected by using purposive sampling technique. The research sheds light on diverse repercussions of unemployment on the individual and family level such as skill deterioration, reduced self-esteem, confidence and disturbance in familial life.

Key Words: Unemployment, Social effects, Psychological effects, Youth

INTRODUCTION Pakistan is a developing country and is currently passing through many financial and economic crises. Poverty and unemployment has been steadily increasing. Unemployment leads to scaring effects i.e. permanent increase in the level of psychological distress, decrease in future wage, slow career progress and decrease in physical health (Reynolds 2012). At global level, unemployment is a manifestation of structural challenges. There is an increasing gap between education, skills and jobs (Dhillon and Yousef 2012). Lorenzini and Giugni (2010) stated that social isolation is also one of the reasons of unemployment as it gradually makes a decrease in social contacts and collective participation of a person due to which he becomes psychologically depressed and feels loneliness. As it is often seen that mental and psychological health is adversely affected and the person becomes so pessimistic that either he attempts suicide or indulge himself in negative activities that destroys life. Indeed an individual’s self-esteem is negatively affected and feels himself as a burden on family and society. The individual considers himself a useless person who has been termed as incapable of doing anything for the society. Indeed the research threw light on all those social, economic, personal and psychological problems that are directly or indirectly related to unemployment. Unemployment not only affects an individual’s life but it has an adverse impact on the whole economy of the nation. In addition society

can also become a prey to unemployment because people without any work can create many problems for the people of specific society. The fear of becoming unemployed in the future lowers a person’s subjective wellbeing. Being jobless injures self-esteem and fosters feelings of externality helplessness among youth. Morin and Kochhar (2010) stated that a survey found; unemployment often weakened ties to family and friends at perhaps a time when the unemployed most needed support. Those who have been jobless for long duration are significantly more pessimistic than the short term unemployed about their chances of finding a job as good as the one they lost. Lorenzini and Giugni (2010) in their research work stated that in particular it can be shown that unemployment leads to financial distress where unemployed face risks of depression, stress and harassment. According to (Mitchell 2012) sustained unemployment imposes significant economic, personal and social effects that include loss of current output, social exclusion and the loss of skills, psychological harm including increased suicide rates, ill health and reduced life expectancy, loss of motivation, the undermining of human relations and family life, racial and gender inequality, and loss of social values and responsibility. While comparing employed and unemployed people it is observed that jobless persons seemed to be less satisfied, have poor mental and physical health and also having family conflicts or disputes

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more than the employed one. According to (Gu,l et al. 2012) the private and social effects of unemployment include rigorous financial suffering, poverty, debt, homelessness and housing stress, family tensions and breakdown, boredom, alienation, shame and stigma, increased social isolation, crime, erosion of confidence and self-esteem. Most of these increases with the elongated duration of unemployment. MATERIALS AND METHODS The area of the research was Faisal Colony Chaklala Rawalpindi. It is located near Benazir International airport. A sample of 105 households was selected for the study through using purposive sampling technique. The sample included both males and females. Different data collection methods included interviews, questionnaire, key informant method, and census survey. RESULTS AND DICUSSION The major purpose of the study was to identify the social and economic problems that are to be faced by youth due to unemployment. Unemployment is deadly in its effects. Unemployment not only affects an individual’s personal life but overall the whole society has to suffer and also an entire economy of the nation is destroyed to some extent. It breaks down morale, destroys courage, confidence and ambition, and finally leads to poverty. An individual's social life is adversely affected due to unemployment. Majority of the youth being interviewed was desired of having a government job, some wanted a job that must be related to their degree or field of study while mostly preferred salary over everything because they argued that 10 to 20,000 salary was not enough to fulfill their expenses. It was also observed that most of the people were doing a job that was not related to their field. One of the male respondents 30 years old argued that he spent an ample of money for his studies and got a degree from an abroad country but still he was unemployed, and his mother also seemed to be tense because her son was married and she was worried about the future life of her son. On the other hand some respondents told that they often left some availed chances of jobs as the salary didn’t match their expenses. While females were mostly interested in a kind of job which provides them a safe and secure environment to work. One of the female respondents said that she wanted to have a job but she was restricted by her father who would decide that what kind of job would be suitable for her. Moreover, most of the respondents shared that they face embarrassment and disgrace at the hands of their family and relatives for being unemployed.

An individual faces a lot of problems personally due to unemployment. These problems could be multifaceted including social, economic and psychological. Anxiety, depression, frustration, mental agony, social isolation, oversleeping, anger, over sensitivity and other behavioral disorders are various social and psychological issues recounted by the respondents. (Nazir, et al. 2009) stated that unemployed often suffer hopelessness, desperation and indifferences. Inferiority complex, over expectation and frustration is arising among young generation because every person wanted to have a high standard designation in order to enjoy all the luxuries of life due to which competition is arising among them and everyone tries to defeat the other person to get his satisfaction of life. Deterioration of Skills According to the respondents, skills and working capabilities are negatively affected when a person remained unemployed for a long period of time. Economic pressures and social responsibilities leads to underemployment which is again an underutilization of skills and knowledge of person. Table. 1: Deterioration of Skills due to Unemployment

Response Frequency Percent

Strongly

Agree

Agree

Not Sure

Disagree

Total

18

31

1

5

55

32.7%

56.4%

1.8%

9.1%

100.0%

Reduction of Self-esteem The respondents shared that their self-esteem is lowered because of joblessness. The individuals feel themselves as useless and unimportant and the negative response of the family aggravates this feeling. Research has shown that unemployed people suffer substantially poorer mental and physical health. Economic dependency and humiliation leads to negative self-esteem. Reduction of self-esteem during unemployment Table. 2: Reduction of Self-esteem during

Unemployment

Response Frequency Percentage

Strongly Agree

Agree

Not Sure

13

17

7

23.6%

30.9%

12.7%

Disagree

Total

18

55

32.7%

100.0%

Family Pressure The respondents shared their view that education is a means for social mobility and economic prosperity for the common masses. Once they have completed their graduate studies, most of young

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individuals are expected to be the bread earners for the family. The economic resources of the middle and lower-middle class families are exhausted in education of their children, so, they are naturally expected to give economic support to their families. But owing to less income opportunities now-a-days they are unable to fulfill this expectation. Consequently they become dependent on their family for their economic needs. The respondents shared that usually a person becomes irresponsible when he remained unemployed for a long period of time due to which family disputes arose as during the research some of the respondents seemed to be free from any kind of responsibility while their parents looked troubled and angry due to such situation and irresponsible behavior of their children. The respondents also shared their views about the factors of high unemployment rate in the country. According to them the government has been incapable to accommodate this huge influx of graduates every year into the job market. Favoritism and nepotism are the biggest hurdles and the job placements take place on reference basis. Previous job experience to get hired is yet another obstacle for fresh/inexperienced candidates in getting jobs. According to the respondents unemployment is an economic as well as a social problem that not only affects an individual’s life but it also has an impact on the society and the economy of the concerned nation. As (Mitchell’s 2012) research showed that consistent unemployment has significant economic and social effects that include loss of current output and social exclusion as well as increase in suicide rates, the undermining of human relations and loss of social responsibility. The current study investigated the social and economic problems which showed that due to financial crises and political instability the economy is weakened. While at the societal level the crime rate increases among the unemployed youth and they tend to be involved in other negative activities which not only disturbs an individual’s personal life but also generate problems for the family and society. Various negative behaviors develop or adopted during unemployment phase like increase in crime rate, drug use, suicide attempt, family disputes etc. Different crimes like dishonesty, fraud. Harris and Mar 2001) in his study concluded that joblessness is accompanied by negative lifestyle such as use of alcohol, nicotine and other substances. As this is obvious from the research work done by (Ahmad and Azim 2010) that described the unwillingness of youth to participate in economic activities and majority of young people use to wander around and waste their time without being

involved in any productive activity. Indeed working capability and aptitudes are reduced during unemployment which is an alarming and risky sign for the future life of a person. So it was concluded that unemployment not only influences a person’s present life but it can also negatively affects his future life. Through the whole discussion and results it can be said that unemployment is not an individual's problem but it is a serious and severe issue for the whole country and the economy. Although many research works and surveys have been conducted over this problem but the need is to find out a solution by taking proper measures and remedies. CONCLUSION As the specific study was conducted in order to investigate the social and economic problems or issues that are being faced by youth due to unemployment or underemployment. After meeting young people and knowing their perceptions and ideas it was concluded that on an economic level, it is a big loss to the nation if the young people are not playing their due role in the economic sector. Moreover another big problem for young graduates in Pakistan is the prerequisite of job experience. Young graduates fail to fulfill this criteria as the internship opportunities are also limited. The university students mostly lack certain technical and professional skills required to get jobs. They lack proper training and thus cannot compete in the job market. They are disillusioned with their society. Coupled with this they have to face ill treatment from their family and relatives that exacerbates their social and psychological position. The most vehement outcry of youth was that they have to bear a negative attitude from the people around them because society has certain expectations which they have to fulfill. This attitude sometimes make them irresponsible and careless about everything. However, youth having moral and encouraging support from the families were much satisfied and promising as compared to those who didn’t have any kind of encouragement or help. REFERENCES Ahmad, Rizwan, and Parvez Azam

2010 Youth Population and the labour Market of Pakistan Pakistan Economic and Social Review 48(2):183-208.

Dhillon, Navtej, and Tarik Yousef 2012 Addressing the 100 Million Youth Challenge Perspectives on Youth Employment in the Arab World in 2012. World Economic Forum 14(6):389-395.

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Elizabeth, Harris, and Morrow Mar 2001 Unemployment is a Health Hazard: The Health Costs of Unemployment. Centre for Applied Economic Research and Industrial Relations Research Centre 12(1):1035-3046.

Gul, Amen, Khalid Zaman, Muhammad, Mushtaq Khan and Mehboob, Ahmad 2012 Measuring Unemployment Costs on Socio Economic Life of Urban Pakistan. Journal of American Sciences, 8(5):129-142.

Lorenzini, Jasmine, and Marco Giugni 2010 Youth Coping with Unemployment: The Role of Social Support. In YOUNEX Swiss workshop on “Youth, Unemployment, Precariousness, and Exclusion in Switzerland”. Geneva.

Mitchell,Bill 2012 Unemployment Causes Higher Property and Violent Crime Rates. Law and Economy 44(1):259-283.

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