GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT TRENDS BRIEF, October 2005 Employment Impact in Pakistan of South Asia Earthquake Introduction Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered The tragic earthquake that struck Pakistan and Kashmir – as a result of the earthquake (see table 1). other parts of South Asia on October 8 has left tens This would account for nearly half of the total of thousands dead or injured, devastating families employment that existed in the region before the and communities throughout the region. The search earthquake. An important challenge following the for survivors continues and the urgent task of initial relief effort is to provide income-generating providing food, water, shelter, medical care and activities in order for people to rebuild their counselling to those who survived has begun. destroyed homes and lost assets. With most While we are far from having a clear picture of the infrastructure and shops destroyed in the towns and full extent of the damage, UN agencies, other heavy loss of livestock and agricultural implements international organizations, NGOs and local in the rural areas, people need substantial support to governments are fully engaged in assessing and rebuild their income-generating prospects. addressing the needs of the affected individuals, so The areas affected are amongst the poorest in that help can be directed where it is most needed in the country, with a poverty rate above the national a rapid and effective manner. average. The ILO estimates that total employment Because the regions affected by the earthquake in the affected districts was around 2.4 million at have large numbers of poor with little savings and the time of the disaster; over 2 million of these who therefore rely heavily on their own labour for workers and their families were living below the their survival, one piece of information that is both US$2 per day poverty line before the disaster crucial for the region’s recovery and central to the struck. Most jobs in the affected areas are in the less mission of the ILO is how the earthquake has productive sectors of the economy such as damaged people’s ability to earn an income and agriculture and services. They are mainly informal therefore to provide for themselves and their and thus without social safety nets. For the vast families. To help piece together this vital majority of those who had a job prior to the disaster, information, the ILO has undertaken a rapid their work only provided them and their families a employment assessment to provide key information mechanism for survival, not the means to build up about the affected labour markets and to estimate sufficient savings upon which they can now rely. the number and share of jobs that were lost due to Thus by losing their employment, even for a short the earthquake. period of time, workers in the affected districts have likely already fallen into extreme poverty. Rapid Employment Assessment Prior to the earthquake, each employed person in the region had to support themselves and, on The ILO estimates that over 1.1 million jobs and average, more than two additional dependants. This livelihoods were wiped out in the affected areas in means that the 1.1 million workers who lost their Pakistan – including the North West Frontier employment not only provided their own Global Employment Trends Brief, October 2005 2 livelihoods, but also the livelihoods of an additional badly and urgently needed basic needs – be 2.4 million people, over half of whom were channelled into building sustainable businesses and estimated to be under the age of 15. Thus, the jobs. Institutional mechanisms to ensure that this widespread loss of income from work has the happens need to be planned from the start. potential to be a tremendous burden for literally Rebuilding the basic infrastructure – roads, millions of people throughout the affected areas. utility services, schools and hospitals – can create Reviving the rural economy where most people employment. But this means ensuring that decent in the affected areas live and work is both urgent and productive yet labour-intensive methods of and challenging. Prior to the earthquake nearly 1.4 construction are utilized. Local contractors with a million workers in the area were engaged in good knowledge of the available local labour force agricultural activities, an estimated 40 per cent or should be given a major part in the reconstruction more of whom are now without work. Livestock, effort. This would also encourage the use of local which provides essential dairy products and the raw materials and that local means are utilized to animal power to cultivate the land, has also suffered transport them. Training for local contractors and badly. The land itself has been ravaged by ensuring that the contracting procedures put in place landslides and falling rocks. Stored agricultural favour displaced workers, or at a minimum not inputs and rudimentary agricultural implements place them at a disadvantage, is essential if the have been buried in collapsed houses and stores. maximum beneficial impact of infrastructure The small roads and paths to farms no longer exist. development is to be realized. The medium- and small-sized towns in the area This devastation will also aggravate the already which provided jobs and incomes to almost a third vulnerable position of children, many of whom may of the population lie in ruin. Even the informal be left orphaned, homeless, and out of school in the economy where most people worked in the urban wake of the disaster, and force them to seek areas needs a minimum of support infrastructure to alternative forms of support. In addition, women operate. This too has been destroyed. Rebuilding and youth in the region have traditionally found it the minimum of assets to revive the urban informal particularly difficult to find decent employment economy requires urgent support. In total, the ILO opportunities and to secure a life outside of poverty. estimates that around 730,000 workers were Without immediate help, poverty among these employed in the service sector (many in the groups will grow, leaving thousands more young informal economy), while 230,000 worked in people and women with little hope for the future. industry (comprised of construction, manufacturing, Working in the aftermath of this earthquake will utilities and mining) (see table 2). Taken together, not be easy. Occupational safety and health more than half of these workers have likely lost one considerations need to be given very high priority. of their primary sources of income. This will require both training in these procedures and ensuring mechanisms are in place to see that Employment-Focused Response they are being enforced. Workers will need suitable Needed Urgently protection if more casualties are to be avoided. The essential point is that the rehabilitation and Monitoring the employment situation in the reconstruction efforts that will follow the massive impacted areas will be critical over the course of the relief operation now under way must recognize the next several months. urgent need to generate employment. This will not These are proud people who have over happen automatically. Employment support generations fought against the region’s difficult services are needed to provide both information and terrain to earn for themselves and their families a short-term training for the jobs that will be decent and productive living. Much of their hard- generated through the reconstruction effort. built assets have been destroyed. What is needed Financial and institutional support will be needed to urgently is to support the creation of decent jobs and rebuild the small businesses and income-generating livelihoods in the future. assets in both the rural and urban areas. Financial support from the outside world, including remittances from overseas must – after meeting Global Employment Trends Brief, October 2005 3 Table 1. Estimated employment loss, total and by sector (in thousands) Employment by sector Geographic area Total employment Agriculture & livestock Industry Services Other North-West Frontier Province 580 260 110 200 20 Pakistan-administered Kashmir 530 320 40 180 - Total 1'110 580 150 380 20 Table 2. Baseline labour force and employment data, 2005 (in thousands) Employment by sector Total Geographic area labour Total force employment Agriculture & livestock Industry Services Other North-West Frontier Province 1'410 1'300 680 180 410 40 Pakistan-administered Kashmir 1'170 1'080 700 50 320 - Total 2'580 2'380 1'380 230 730 40