Afghanistan, in the last more than ten years, has had little development in creating job opportunities for its masses. Employment could only increase if our government had been able to efficiently utilize the labor force of this country for reviving our agricultural, industrial and other important sectors.
Afghan laborers are engaged in various forms of work ranging from industrial and agricultural to construction and mining in different countries of the world, especially in Iran and Pakistan. At current over two millions of Afghan refugees reside in Pakistan while another one million live in Iran.
There have been failures to attract those refugees to return to Afghanistan as war still continues and they fear they would not be able to earn a livelihood here. Unemployment in Afghanistan not only discourages Afghan refugees to return but also causes thousands to leave this country for other developing or advanced countries of the world for better jobs and safety. If travelling abroad was not possible they would join the world of crimes.
There has been a dramatic growth in the number of unemployed individuals in the country. The number is expected to further increase. Based on the data from Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) the number of unemployed people is over 800,000 in the country, although it is hard to get accurate figures in Afghanistan.
Unofficial figures put the number of people with not employment at over a million. A big portion of that figure is formed by youths. The economy of Afghanistan is not creating adequate job opportunities to address the growing needs of masses.
The condition is so despite the billions of dollars of aid poured in Afghanistan by international community in the last ten years. The process still continues. At such an important juncture one can ask, if Afghanistan is failing to provide job opportunities at present, what will be its condition after 2014 when the withdrawal process of NATO troops will complete?
About 40,000 Afghans are working in NATO military bases and other foreign NGOs are to lose their employments with withdrawal of US-led forces.
The Taliban know how to benefit from the condition that has been given birth of growing unemployment in Afghanistan. Although they are not holding any government in Afghanistan, Taliban are good employment provider, according to many people. The salaries Taliban pays, is much higher than what government is paying to civil servants.
For a notable number of Afghan youths, working with Taliban is preferable and easier than becoming a government employee or travelling illegally abroad. Taliban continues to recruit youths who are disappointed and hopeless about the government's doings to solve their problems.
Those youths who have resembling ideology as that of extremists are even voluntarily joining the ranks of Taliban. This has been dangerous trend and has far negative prospects for the country.