Population and Employment

Population refers \\’to the inhabitants of a particular place. In

particular words, the population is the aggregate observation of the
subjects in a community.

Employment is the state of having a paid work.

If this definition confuses you, do not worry because the further

explanation will clarify all these terms to you. But before that, you need
to know what is meant by population growth?

The birth rate refers to the annual number of births per thousand
population while the death rate refers to the annual number of
deaths per thousand population.

The difference between the birth and death rate is known as the
natural increase or the growth in population. The equation below
represents the above information.

Natural Increase = Birth Rate – Death Rate

This was all about the introduction of this topic. Now, let’s discuss some
important concepts regarding population and employment in detail now
without further introductions.

Population and employment:

Reasons for increase in population:
One of the major problems in our society is that our population is
increasing rapidly but we do not have enough resources to support them.
This causes a burden on the existing resources as well and
therefore, overpopulation (when population exceeds its suitable size
within a particular habitat) is a major problem.

Some of the primary reasons for high population growth are:

 Illiteracy is causing unawareness among the people.

When people are unaware of the negative impacts of high population

growth, they do not understand the need to control the increasing
population.

This is a major concern when it comes to the people of rural

areas because the educational system in a rural area is not very
developed at the moment due to lack of resources.

 In rural areas, there is a high demand for sons.

The farmers in rural areas prefer sons so that they can assist them in work
on the farms. As a result, there are larger families in rural areas as
compared to urban areas.

 The ideology of some Muslims and the opposition by ulemas is a

major factor as well.

Some Muslims strongly believe that “Rizq” (sustenance) is provided by

God to each and every soul. Therefore, they condemn the family planning
programmes and consider them useless.

Similarly, some ulemas (religious scholars) also condemn the family

planning programmes on religious grounds and these hindrances
eventually lead to an increase in population.

 After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Pakistan

accompanied millions of Afghan refugees.

Before understanding this point, recall your information that population

growth is based upon birth rate, death rate and migrations.

When Afghan refugees came to Pakistan, they settled in the tribal areas
on the Western side of Pakistan. These millions of refugees resulted in an
increase in the population of Pakistan.

Moreover, the frequent changes in the government do not allow uniform

policies to be followed to counter high population growth.
This takes us to another very important topic which is about the effects of
high population growth.

Effects of high population growth:

Overpopulation causes a shortage of resources (such as food and water)
because of the competition among the population that increases.

Similarly, problems such as underemployment (people taking jobs that

do not reflect their personal training and financial needs)
and unemployment (state of not having a paid job) are faced.

This is because a country does not have enough potential to provide jobs
to the people according to their skills and capacities. This can lead to drug
addiction and crimes.

Apart, there is a burden on the health sector due to the shortage of

medicine, doctors, nurses and hospitals. These problems restrict the
development of a country.

The problems associated with a high population are summarized below.

 Shortage of resources (food, water and electricity)

 Increase in drug addicts and crimes
 The burden on the health sector
 Restrictions in the development of a country

Now when you know some of the problems related to overpopulation, it

is time to discuss how can we manage this issue.
Reducing the population growth:
One of the most effective methods is to organize
vigorous campaigns regarding family planning in order to create
awareness among people.

This awareness can also be created through advertisement and the

effective use of social media. The women of rural areas can be
provided jobs so that they pursue their career and early marriages can be
prevented.

Moreover, child labour can be banned to prevent the people from

depending on children income and as a result, the desire for sons can be
countered effectively.

If the literacy rate in the country is increased, the people will understand
their responsibility as a citizen and thus, their standard of living can be
improved.

If women education is promoted in Pakistan, the country will prosper

financially and the problem of overpopulation will be resolved. But, why
is that so? Let me explain.

When women will be educated, they will work for their income and they
will be less concerned about having children.

They will contribute to the economic development of the country rather

than being a burden on the male population. The above-mentioned points
are summarized below:
 1. By creating awareness among the people
2. By running effective campaigns and family planning programs
3. Early marriages can be discouraged and women can be educated
4. Child labour can be banned
5. Literacy rate can be increased

These are some of the points that you should be aware of when talking
about how to deal with high growth in population.

Q1. What is meant by employment?

Employment is the state when a person works for a specific time and
is paid for his work. There are three main sectors in which the
employed labour force can be divided.

1. Primary sector
2. Secondary sector
3. Tertiary sector

In Pakistan, the primary sector employs the most amount of people. The
primary sector comprises jobs such as farming, fishing, forestry and
those that extract raw materials.

Q2.Why is there a high employment in the primary sector in

Pakistan?

One of the reasons that Pakistan has high employment in the

primary sector is that the majority of the population lives in rural
areas and they practise these activities to earn a living.

Q3. Define tertiary sector.

The tertiary sector refers to jobs in which services are provided, also
comprises a large labour force in Pakistan. The jobs such as driving,
security, insurance and teaching are some examples.

Note: The tertiary sector generates more employment in Pakistan than in

the secondary sector.
Q4. What do you mean by employment of secondary sector?

The secondary sector refers to the development and manufacture of

the primary goods to convert them to semi-finished or finished
products.

Some examples of jobs in the secondary sector are furniture making,

car making, steel making and textile production. This sector requires
both skilled and unskilled labour to progress.

Unfortunately, the rate of skilled labour to unskilled labour is low

because of the less education opportunities in many rural areas which
lower the literacy rate.

Unemployment:
When a person does not find a paid job, he is said to be unemployed.
There are many reasons for unemployment and some of them are:

 The technology reduces the need of manpower.

Over the past few years, there has been massive development in
technology. As a result, devices such as computers and other automatic
machines have reduced the demand for manual workers.

Similarly, the mechanization in agriculture has reduced the need for

farmers because machines can do the majority of work such as threshing.

 There has been a rapid increase in the population which can

lead to unemployment.
When the population grows at a very fast rate, the rate of unemployment
increases because there are fewer development projects and other
opportunities to get employed.

Therefore, more jobs need to be created to counter this problem.

 The low literacy rate makes people unable to fulfil the job
criteria.

This means that computer literate people are required in many industries
but there are very few people who have the knowledge to deal with a
computer.

When this the problem, unemployment occurs because the skills of

people do not match the job requirement and a mismatch is created.

Due to unemployment, drug addiction and crimes increase because the

people get frustrated and they involve illegal activities. Moreover,
the purchasing power of people decrease.

When this happens, the production of goods also reduces because the rate
at which the people will purchase will be quite often.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and GNP (Gross National Product)
also reduces because the resources remain untapped and people generate
less income which hinders the economic growth.

Q1. How can we reduce unemployment?

Unemployment can be reduced by starting

multiple development projects because they will require both skilled
and unskilled labour.

Moreover, the literacy rate can be increased through educational

opportunities in rural areas to generate a computer-literate force
that meets the requirements of an industry.

For the purpose, training institutions can be set up for young people
so that the health, insurance, banking and transport sector can
improve.
Migrations:
One of the major reasons why the population growth is high are
the rural-urban migrations (movement from rural to urban areas).

Immigrate: An act of entering a country to live is called immigration.

Emigrate: An act of leaving a country to live is called emigration.

There are multiple urban “pull” factors and rural “push” factors that are
mentioned below.

The urban pull factors are:

 There are greater chances of employment

 The quality of life in urban areas is better
 There are more transport and communication opportunities
 The health services are satisfactory
 There are more entertainment opportunities

The rural push factors are:

 Less crop yield (production) for many years

 Natural disasters such as floods destroy farms
 Limited food production
 Limitations in transport
 Undeveloped health sector

These are some of the reasons why many people migrate from rural areas
to urban areas. These migrations create housing problems as land is less
to accommodate all citizens.
As a result, unplanned growth of cities occur and slums and squatter
settlements (Katchi Abadis) grow. Moreover, pollution increases due to
the more frequent use of buses and cars.

Apart, other problems such as a degrading quality of life occur because a

high population in cities reduce the food, water and electricity supply and
problems such as electricity shortage are faced.

The best way to counter these problems is to promote self-help

schemes (small scale projects that allow people to use their skills to
develop their local area).

These schemes prevent the people from being a burden on the

government and the community problems can easily be countered.

However, there are chances of mismanagement and theft that reduce the
use of these schemes because corruption can lead to a massive financial
loss for a community.

Khuda ki Basti and Orangi pilot project (Karachi) are some examples of
self-help schemes in Pakistan.

Demographic transition model:

The DTM (demographic transition model) is based upon
the birth and death rates of a country to suggest a country’s population
growth through various stages.

The changes in population growth rates and the effect on population can be shown on
the Demographic Transition Model (Population Cycle) - see diagram below:
This can be divided into four stages:
Stage 1 - High Fluctuating
Birth Rate and Death rate are both high. Population growth is slow and fluctuating.
Reasons
Birth Rate is high as a result of:
 Lack of family planning
 High Infant Mortality Rate: putting babies in the 'bank'
 Need for workers in agriculture
 Religious beliefs
 Children as economic assets

Death Rate is high because of:

 High levels of disease
 Famine
 Lack of clean water and sanitation
 Lack of health care
 War
 Competition for food from predators such as rats
 Lack of education

Typical of Britain in the 18th century and the Least Economically Developed Countries (LEDC's)
today.
Stage 2 - Early Expanding
Birth Rate remains high. Death Rate is falling. Population begins to rise steadily.
Reasons
Death Rate is falling as a result of:
 Improved health care (e.g. Smallpox Vaccine)
 Improved Hygiene (Water for drinking boiled)
 Improved sanitation
 Improved food production and storage
 Improved transport for food
 Decreased Infant Mortality Rates

Typical of Britain in 19th century; Bangladesh; Nigeria

Stage 3 - Late Expanding

Birth Rate starts to fall. Death Rate continues to fall. Population rising.
Reasons
 Family planning available
 Lower Infant Mortality Rate
 Increased mechanization reduces need for workers
 Increased standard of living
 Changing status of women

Stage 4 - Low Fluctuating

Birth Rate and Death Rate both low. Population steady

In stage one, you can see that the birth rate is high (due to lack of family
planning programs) and the death rate is also high (less medical
facilities).

In stage two, the death rate declines because of improved health facilities,
more food production and improved sanitation.

In stage three, there has been a decrease in the birth rate because of
women employment, improved family planning programs and greater
literacy rate.

The stage four indicates a stable birth and death rate in the future.

In short, the past, present and future statistics of the total population are
shown through the demographic transition model.
The population structure is the percentage of females and males in
different age groups and is based upon the birth and death rates of a
population.

In other words, the population structure is defined by the organization of

genetic variation including mutation, demographic and genetic drift.