Unemployment is a worldwide curse.

It is recognized as the mother of courtliness

ills. It encourages dishonesty, corruption and falsehood. It develops dark side of human
character. There are different causes of unemployment like poverty, over population, in-effective
education system and industrial development. Similarly there are various steps to check this giant
problem. No doubt the government is fully aware of this problem but the quick remedies are
needed to check this problem.
In Pakistan due to gigantic rise in population, individual finances have been
disturbed a lot. This is because of rising unemployment. Unemployment has now become such a
dangerous economic, social and political problem that it has endangered the security of the
country. The law and order situation in the country has also been affected. Therefore complete
programme is required.

URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT
Many urban centers in developing countries are plagued by high rates of
unemployment. Yet, despite the fact that large numbers of urban workers are unemployed, urban
centers still experience high rates of rural-to-urban migration. A natural policy response has been
to focus on job creation in urban sector, which in some cases has actually led to an increase in
unemployment.

"Urban unemployment is that unemployment which exit in urban areas"

OR
"A socio-economic condition occurring in urbs, where a person is actively searching
for employment BUT unable to find work."

 TYPES OF URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT

(a) Industrial Unemployment:
Industrial Unemployment refers to the reduction in the need for labor because of
changes in technology. Such as utilization of robots in manufacturing plants has reduced the
number of employees required to produce most products.
In recent years many industries have been modernized. New and automation
techniques of production have rendered many workers unemployed. It is called technological
unemployment.
The Britishers had totally destroyed the village based industries. The condition of
artisans and farmers was not good. They migrated to the urban areas in search of jobs. But they
could only increase the number of unemployed persons.
Industrial activities are increasing by leaps and bounds. Fluctuations in the
business activities affect the level of employment. Industrial recession of 1966-68 rendered many
workers unemployed. Recent power shortage in many states has slackened the industrial activity
and increased the number of unemployed persons. It is called cyclical unemployment.
(b) Educated Unemployment:
Refers to someone got education to a high level, but cannot find something that
pays for what he/she really likes to spend time doing. Some people spend time researching or
doing something out of pure interest and passion in that area, without getting paid for it. There
are those who seek to simply reach out to solve some public issue, or help someone without
seeking rewards, or do creative work that may not be of lucrative value but has some intrinsic
value for the person. Some may simply choose to continue learning, just out of interest and not
interested in doing some job that pays well but is not interesting or provides value according to
him. Some people may be highly educated but their skills and knowledge may be out dated or

not an exact fit for the current requirements. There may be educated and disabled folks who are
sick or mentally stressed out or having some pressing issue they need to resolve first.
Indian universities and colleges have been producing lakhs of graduates every
year. Education in India is not job oriented. Students have been aimlessly studying different
courses.
When they come out of college after completing their education, they fail to get
suitable jobs. Educated unemployment entails a waste of the countrys most valuable resource,
the human capital.

CAUSES OF URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT

(i) Personal factors:
Personal factors refer to the physical disability, weak mentality, accidents,
defective education and training.
a. Age factor:
The very young and old persons are at a disadvantage in securing employment due to
inexperience and inefficiency, respectively.
b. Vocational unfitness:
Many young people have no understanding of their own abilities or interests and have no
particular task in mind when they have to get their training. Willingness to do anything may
seem to indicate a worthy desire on the part of the person seeking work. Employers, on the other
hand, may seek qualified and competent trained workers. Similarly, there may be more men
trained in a particular profession than required. The demand is less than the supply and hence
unemployment.

c. Illness or physical disabilities:

A number of workers may be temporarily unemployed because of illness or physical disabilities.
Illness may be caused due to conditions in the occupation and disabilities may arise due to
accidents.
(ii) Technological and economic factors:
Another important factor causing unemployment is disorganization in the
economic structure and the dislocation in industries. Due to advancement in science and
technology, a high specialization in the division of labour takes place. Due to this, able-bodied
and capable men remain unemployed. The unemployment generated under this category is due to
trade cycles, technological advancement, seasonal variations and lack of mobility among the
labour force. Unemployment is a result of both technological changes and cyclical variations of
business and trade, which are deeply connected with the production process.
(iii) Mass Migration:
Mass migration is an important cause for unemployment in urban areas. People
migrate from rural areas in large groups when there is drought or when any other unfavorable
conditions occur. A city or town can ill-afford to provide employment opportunities to all of the
migrated people, thus, causing mass unemployment.
The problem of unemployment that exists in Pakistan is an outcome of several
cumulative factors such as the British rule and its policies, the Zamindari system, which
exploited the farmers, the policy of laissez faire and free trade, which hindered the progress of
rapid industrialization, the rapid growth of population, the decay of small-scale and cottage
industries, which led to a large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, and the low levels of
investment that resulted in the slow expansion of the secondary and tertiary sectors.

High population, scope for work decrease

High number of skilled & active manpower than job opportunity

Because of political imbalance people could not get job legally

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RURAL UNEMPLOYMENT AND URBAN

UNEMPLOYMENT
It is a stigma pertaining the simile between rural and urban
unemployment, whereas both scenarios differ in nature, size, causes, impacts and
number of effectees. The following table of comparison will elaborate the distinct
between the two statuses:
Rural Unemployment
Urban Unemployment
Rural unemployment happens outside of big Urban unemployment occurs in overpopulated
cities and in most cases is less populated areas areas inside and leading out of cities in all
usually referred to as suburbia and also have a directions usually referred to as a Metropolis
lower number of unemployed.

and has larger unemployment numbers because

there densely populated in most cases poor
areas with lesser education and higher crime
statistics
Greater number of unemployed

Lesser number of unemployed

Cause derivative

Lack of work
Lack of education
Land less poor farmer
Lack of resources

High population, scope for work

decrease
High number of skilled & active
manpower than job opportunity
Because of political imbalance people
could not get job legally

 IMPACTS OF URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT

1) Social Impact of Urban Unemployment

Rising Urban unemployment is linked to social deprivation. In Urban areas there
is a comparatively higher cost of living, people live a luxurious and accessorized life. Hence in
case of joblessness urban may suffer from persistently high long-term unemployment see falling
real incomes and a spreading of inequality of income and wealth. Unemployment always hits
habitants of urban areas at the hardest. The jobless lose their self-respect, purpose, sense of
achievement and, of course, income. It is not just the individuals themselves that are hit, their
families also suffer with them. Homes and cars repossessed, arguments at home, perhaps even
excess borrowing prolonging the suffering even when another job is found.
To compound the problems, the longer a person is unemployed the harder it
becomes to find a job. The long term unemployed can really suffer as employers are unwilling to
take a chance on someone that no one else was willing to hire.

2) Economic Impact of Urban Unemployment

Unemployment effects the economy of an urbanized area in almost endless ways.
It reduces the ability of consumers to spend on everything. This causes business to sell less and
6

make less profit. It has effects on the mental health of the people unemployed, along with other
health problems. This can cause higher costs for low cost medical facilities and insurance
companies.
Unemployment affects people by depreciating their economic lifestyle. This
increases the rate of crimes, divorce and homelessness as people are unable to meet their
demands and needs. Furthermore, it leads to depression and psychological traumas as people see
themselves as worthless, therefore diminishing the relationship between people.

3) Psychological Impact
Unemployment lets the urbs to feel or have experienced anxiety, helplessness,
depression, and stress after being without a job. Many unemployed individuals experience
sleeping problems and strained relationships and have avoided social situations as a result of
their job loss. Still others may be described by diminished hopes of finding employment at older
ages, and feelings that advanced degrees are useless or have caused potential employers to think
they're overqualified. On the content of self-identity some difficulty finding credit to begin new
businesses. We can't always see the effects of unemployment -- it can have an overall effect on a
person's mental health. While unemployment does not have much of an initial affect on
someone's mental well-being, after a few months, it takes its toll. People experiencing chronic
unemployment might become anxious or depressed, and have trouble sleeping. Prolonged
unemployment also has a negative overall effect on a person's sense of self-worth, damage that
might remain in place even after the person is once again employed. Job loss is associated with
elevated rates of mental and physical health problems, increases in mortality rates, and
detrimental changes in family relationships and in the psychological well-being of spouses and
children.
Unemployment can contribute to reduced life expectancy. In a longitudinal study
in which the employment, earnings, and work histories of high-seniority male workers were
tracked during the 1970s and 1980s, mortality rates in the year after job displacement were 50 to
100 percent higher than would otherwise have been expected. The effect on mortality risk
declined sharply over time, but even 20 years after these men had lost jobs, elevated risk of death
was found among those who had lost jobs earlier, in comparison to the stably employed (Sullivan
& von Wachter, 2009). Even after controlling for baseline health and other demographic
characteristics, unemployed workers report significantly poorer health and more depressive
symptoms than those who remain stably employed (Burgard, Brand, & House, 2007). Low
7

paying jobs typically offer minimal opportunities to utilize ones skills and come with a host of
negative outcomes (McKee-Ryan et al., 2005). Underemployment is associated with decreased
self-esteem, increased alcohol use, and elevated rates of depression, as well as low birth weight
among babies born to underemployed women (Dooley & Prause, 2004).
The stress of unemployment can lead to declines in the well-being of spouses
(Rook, Dooley, & Catalano, 1991) and to changes in family relationships and in outcomes for
children. Research dating back to the Great Depression found that men who experienced
substantial financial loss became more irritable, tense, and explosive. Children often suffered as
these fathers became more punitive and arbitrary in their parenting. Such paternal behavior, in
turn, predicted temper tantrums, irritability, and negativism in children, especially boys, and
moodiness, hypersensitivity, feelings of inadequacy and lowered aspirations in adolescent girls
(Elder, 1974; Elder, Caspi, & Nguyen, 1986). Subsequent studies have continued to find such a
pathway from economic loss to fathers behavior to childs well-being (e.g., Galambos &
Silbereisen, 1987).
Elevated depressive symptomatology has also been found among unemployed
single mothers, and mothers who were more depressed more frequently punished their
adolescent children (McLoyd et al., 1994). Frequently punished adolescent children, in turn,
experienced increased distress and increased depressive symptoms of their own.
Unemployment may even impact decisions about marriage and divorce. Unemployed or poor
men are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce than men who are employed or who are
more economically secure (McLoyd, 1990).

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT

a).

Structural Functional Perspective

Functional theory examines the functional role of any universal feature of society

As unemployment is a universal feature of all modern societies functional theorists focus on the
usefulness of certain levels of unemployment, and/or the relationship between' 'dysfunctional
families' and risks of unemployment.

b).

Conflict Perspective

Conflict Perspective focuses on-the way that how political economic forces affect
the levels of unemployment, the way that class , gender, and racism affect any one person's
chance of employment , the impact of wider social processes - such as the rise of transnational
companies and globalization and how these historical processes are changing:i)
ii)

the comparative unemployment levels within different countries and

)the processes of change within those countries e.g. manufacturing shifts from the
UK and the USA to cheaper labor markets across the world

c).

Symbolic-Interactionism Perspective
This perspective focuses on the effects of being unemployed on the sense of 'self '

of the individual including the labeling that occurs if a person has been unemployed over certain
periods and the role playing and stigma that is attached to the role of employed/unemployed
the difficulties in getting employment when one is unemployed (i.e. the effect of the primary
status on the secondary and longer lasting status of the person).

STATISTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT

W.R.T. PAKISTAN

Statistical Analysis
The representation is sourced from Economic Survey of Pakistan,, FY 2013 wherein
Unemployment rates rise from 1.19% in 2010-2011 to 1.61% in 2012-13 more in the case of
females (2.09%. 3.05%) than males (0.93%, 1.17%) and, in rural (1.34%,1.90%) than urban
areas (0.86%, 0.95%).

10

 ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN REDUCING URBAN

UNEMPLOYMENT
Generally the Government can do many things to try and influence the level of
employment for example if the Government were to spend more on education and training (so
increasing the skills of workers) they would have to spend less on other things such as healthcare. It could lower taxes, which in turn will promote companies to grow, which in turn will
create jobs, which in turn lowers unemployment. Contrary to raising taxes, which causes
companies to downsize, doesn't stimulate growth, and does promote higher unemployment. But
then lowering taxes means that the government don't collect as much (revenue) money, so they
can't spend as much money back into the economy, meaning that they would not be able to spend
as much on things like training and education, or the countries defense, or on health care.
Moreover, we live under democratic influenced government system where government is unbiased. Job-creation pool encourage all the civilians rather only urbs. So we see it's not easy to
for the government to reduce unemployment - without influencing other parts of the economy as
well - whether in a positive or negative way.
However, as conclusion the government could do following:

Subsidize business investment

Short-term loans with low interest rates
Encourage export of non-perishable commodities
Promote cottage industry

ROLE OF NGOs IN REDUCING URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT

NGOs play a critical role in all areas of development. People and policy makers
are agree on one thing that NGOs play a very important role in development. Role of NGOs vary
over the years as the policy of government changes. NGOs are almost dependent on polices of
government.
Socio economic development is a shared responsibility of both i.e. government
and NGOs. Role of NGOs are complementary but vary according to polices of government.
NGO is one of the alternatives available among various development organizations and one of
the inputs among technical, financial and other resources, major merits of NGOs are emerging

11

from their limited scale of operation; the sporadic efforts of NGOs can be consolidated and made
more effective. Still the primary role of NGO is at the local level as mobilizes of people and their
resources for an indigenous self-sustainable development. And at this level it can be a pioneer,
mediator power broker, catalyst and has many other roles. NGOs and their long glomerations
also are very in playing their role as advocates in policy issues beyond local level-national or
even international level.
Proper assessment of expected an actual roles of NGOs enable us to make them
an effective alternative in the development process. However, small and sporadic NGOs are, they
are valued in a pluralist society as an alternative approach to conventional system of attaining
human well-being and as such NGOs have a pivotal role to play in any society especially where
institutions are alienated and development is dehumanized.
So far, the significance of NGOs in alleviating unemployment has not any
mark-able steps. Most of the NGOs employ those numbers of individuals who are highly /
foreign qualified with rich experiences that commonly lacks in our ordinal level of society.
Labor-force engaged is mostly in the face-off of volunteers who perform their activities and
services against minimal incentives. Henceforth, NGOs can organize job-fairs, on-campus
recruitments and other public-private ventures to accelerate employment opportunities.
Moreover, it can also be helpful for the supply of labor force, additionally provision of technical
expertise to transform a labor into skilled labor.
ROLE OF MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN REDUCING URBAN
UNEMPLOYMENT
Multinational corporations are business entities organized within one country,
while maintaining a network of affiliates globally. The term host countries is used to designate
the countries where these affiliates are operating, while the term parent company refers to the
country where the MNC has established its global headquarters. MNCs typically originate in
developed countries and seek to expand into developing countries as developing countries
provide cheaper resources and fewer or less restrictive barriers to trade.
These MNCs generate employment worldwide. Of the 73 million jobs created
through MNCs, only 12 million are located in developing countries amounting to 2 or 3 percent
12

of the worlds workforce. MNCs account for one-fifth of all paid employment in non-agricultural
sectors and creates a large number of jobs in the manufacturing industries, especially where
technology is concerned. The United Nations Research Institute for Research (and Development
(UNRISD) further points out that in developing countries such as Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Sri Lanka, MNCs account for over 20 percent of all employment in the manufacturing
industry.
Advocates argue that employment generated through MNCs often creates a need
for the businesses which support the industry of those companies. For example, if the auto maker
Ford builds a plant in a developing country, the need for raw materials, auto mechanics, gasoline
stations, and their ilk which support the car industry in turn generate more employment. This is
contingent on whether the MNC utilizes the local business to support their product, and sells
their product locally. If the MNC imports their materials and then exports the finished product
utilizing the labor only of the host country, there is not a significant benefit to the developing
country.

13

CONCLUSION
Urban

unemployment

is

an

equally

socio-economic

and

psychological phenomenon that influences a massive number of

urbs. Since the urbs are used-to accessorized way of living,
therefore, their basic needs are more than food, shelter and
clothing. Level of independency per person is relatively high so
everyone is fighting for his independency optimality. Role of
Public and private sector, is not very much significant, very much
because of democratic influence however, definite measures must
have been adopted for maximum well-being.

14