Employment and Manpower Information in Pakistan: Identificationof the “Invisibles”

Employment and manpower development (E&MD) considerationsare appearing in Pakisan’s development plans since the Fifth Five-YearPlan. These considerations, though improving upon earlier neglect and attimes indifference, however, did not go beyond mere projectionexercises-themselves point of considerable debate 1 – and calculationsof employment impact of investment plans and targeted sectoral growthrates.2 These plans (manpower plans) besides being devoid of educationand training programmes also have no integration with the developmentplans, a prerequisite for a meaningful development exercise. A generallack of awareness amongst the planners and policy-makers about the vitallinks between the E&MD and the development only partly explains theexisting scenario. Absence of a reliable and adequate data base onE&MD related variables appear to be an important constraint forundertaking any meaningful exercise of employment and manpower planning.Existing institutional mechanism of the Labour Market Information System(LMIS) in Pakistan is not responding adequately in addressing its threefunctions, namely (i) Labour Market Information, (ii) Labour MarketDiagnosis, and (iii) Labour Market Intermediation.3 The first twofunctions are required to provide detailed information onE&MD-related variables a subject of discussion of this paper. Thisnon-responsiveness is mainly attributable to low E&MD considerationsin earlier policy formulations.