January 25, 2008	Friday	Muharram 15, 1429

RAWALPINDI, Jan 24: Vulnerable employment, which has been used as an indicator to assess decent work deficits in Pakistan, decreased by 2.5 percentage points between 1999-2000 and 2005-06, says the

“Global Employment Trends,” released by the International Labour Organisation on Thursday.

At the national level vulnerable employment is associated with illiteracy in Pakistan, as the proportion of illiterates is significantly higher among own-account workers and contributing family workers (52.9 per cent) than among employers and employees (36.9 per cent), points out the report.

An investigation of labour market groups shows that vulnerability decreased by 5.0 percentage points for males, but increased by 6.5 points for females, which was mostly due to an increase of the number of female contributing family workers, says the report made available to Dawn by ILO.

A breakdown by economic sector demonstrates that vulnerability is often reduced in sectors leading recent employment growth, such as manufacturing, trade and construction.

The financial sector was an exception, as employment growth in this sector was accompanied by an increasing share of vulnerable employment.

However, given the nature of this sector, for example the lowest rate of illiteracy of all economic sectors, this increase is unlikely to reflect a growing decent work deficit.

At least as important as this overall decrease during a period of rapidly increasing economic growth is a careful examination of which labour market segments have benefited, which groups have been left behind, and what the decrease in vulnerability measured on the basis of status in employment means in terms of other labour market indicators, the ILO states.

The analysis of vulnerable employment in Pakistan draws on the UNDP/ILO Labour Market Information and Analysis (LMIA) project being carried out in the country.