Nearly 2m eligible workers jobless nationwide: Labor Ministry

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on Monday said nearly two million people out of 15 million capable workers are jobless.

Faizullah Zaki, labor and social affairs minister, presenting a report of the ministry’s four years achievements with the media here, said 400,000 new workforce joined the market every year but a small number of them were able to find jobs.

He said the return of a million people who are capable of work to the country had also contributed to the joblessness.

Zaki expressed concern over the high unemployment rate and said the ministry earlier this solar year held a national conference on finding a fundamental solution to the problem.

He called the conference as productive in dealing with joblessness and said, “This conference analyzed the job market and found facts as well as identified factors of joblessness and ways of creating jobs, we also took measures to gradually reduce unemployment.”

Zaki said dealing with joblessness was not the responsibility of the labor and social affairs ministry only but all people and national and international organizations should play part in this regard.

About the achievements of his ministry in reducing joblessness, he said the ministry implemented 59 different programs for creating work opportunities since the national work conference this year.

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