Rozee Survey: Trends in Pakistan’s Job Market

Entering the labor force as an ‘unemployed citizen’ is a daunting prospect for every graduate, pair that with Pakistan, and you have a serious Nightmare on Elm Street scenario.

Labor force survey of Pakistan paints quite a hunky-dory picture: 6% unemployment rate in the previous year, which makes one wonder, where is the lucky 94%?

ROZEE.PK’s recent survey draws a linear trend over past two years for the applications received per job posting in various functional areas. Approximately 8.14 million job applications were analyzed to determine which of the functional areas invited the most attention for the users and whether the respective field created enough opportunities to meet the supply.

The purpose of the survey, Rozee has said, is to enlighten all the prospective job-seekers to tap into the market gaps that are under-supplied and to inform prospective employers about the level of attractiveness the job’s functional area represents to the job-seeker.

ROZEE.PK said that its survey analyzes 63 such unique functions where employers are seeking labor and where they are not. 46% of these are under the threat of being over supplied (excessively in some instances) by labor force. Functional areas including Accounts & Finance, Procurement, Sales and Training & Development have shown a consistent oversupply of labor over the years and will continue to do so.

This increase in applications received to job postings could be attributed to two factors: one, the decline in the jobs being posted within the category (as seen in the functional area of Sales and Training & Development), showing a higher labor supply but a diminishing demand of labor over the years; and two, the attractiveness the job title entails to the job-seekers. The average job postings per month have been consistent through most of the functional areas, whereas the applications being received is creeping up.

The chart below outlines those functional areas where the application per job ratio has been increasing over the years, indicating a growing supply of talent.

The other 54% functional areas where over the last two years the application per job ratio has declined include Project Management, Database Administrator, Systems Analyst and Human Resource. With time the ratio has declined (sharply in the case of Project Management) that could again imply two theories: Increase in job positions (meaning higher labor demand) and decline in labor supply that meets the employers criteria.

Although the rate of job postings has increased over time, yet the rate of applications being received over time doesn’t mirror the rise. Hence, this causes a sharp decline in applications received over time and signals an under-supply of labor within these functional areas. Employers pay heed: these areas are clearly not attracting talent like the rest, and the root of the problem lies in two factors: one the employer brand itself isn’t attractive enough to gauge response from the job-seeker to its job placement; and two, there isn’t sufficiently trained labor in the market that could fill this under-supplied functional area.

The chart below enlists those functional areas where the application per job ratio has been on the decline since past two years, indicating an increasing talent shortage.

For potential job-seekers, this is an opportunity for them to tap into the gaps in the labor market where employers are actively seeking talent. On the other hand, for employers that are finding it hard to gauge positive job-seeker response in certain functional areas, it is recommended to either train or take necessary measures to improve their employer brand awareness.