ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: The new national employment policy, which was expected to be announced by the caretaker government, has been delayed till the formation of a new political setup in the country.

Informed sources told Dawn that the secretary to the ministry of labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis has decided to ‘hold’ new policy with him instead of placing it before the caretaker government as earlier planned.

“This policy has been put into ‘cold storage’ for at least two months although caretaker labour minister Nisar Ghumman wanted it to be announced by the interim government,” a source familiar with the issue said.

He said the labour minister met authors of the new policy on Monday and discussed possibility of announcing it within this month, but he was later convinced on its announcement by the new government.

The new policy has been finalised by the policy planning cell of the labour ministry according to which unemployment has gone down from 8.3 per cent to 5.9 per cent which could be further lowered provided its recommendations are accepted.

Employment has been made the central point of the policy in economic and social policy-making and its emphasis is on both quality and quantity of jobs generated in economy.

It calls for creating favourable conditions, particularly for growth of private sector, in small and medium enterprises and other labour absorbing sectors.

According to the policy document, the new entrants into the labour market currently estimated to be over one million.

It has been proposed that employment opportunities, especially in agriculture, engineering and industrial sectors, should be created.

Recommendations relating to textile sector, leather and apparel industry, fisheries and livestock, human resource development, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, surgical instrument, medicines and appliances, machine tools, moulds and dyes, electric fan industry, mining and quarrying, marble, gemstones and food industries have also been proposed.

Pakistan’s informal sector has grown at an unprecedented pace over the years and today 72.9 per cent of the non-agriculture workforce is employed by this sector.

There has been a 20 per cent plus growth in the informal sector and the issue has become a matter of great concern, with government considering a proposal to bring the informal sector in the mainstream through its ‘decent work country programme’.

“According to a conservative estimate, out of $160 billion size of country’s economy, $32 billion plus is in the informal sector, providing huge opportunity to businessmen to evade taxes every year,” the document said.

“About 32 per cent workforce is in the wholesale and retail business, 21 per cent in the manufacture sector, 17.5 per cent in community and social and personnel sector, 13.8 per cent in construction and 11.1 per cent in the transport sector. This included both in urban and rural areas.”