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More
than a thousand people in Afghanistan
found paid work and thousands more received training or were helped in
their search for work in the first half of 2006, through a project
supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Figures
complied by the Employment Service Centre (ESC) for January to June
2006 are “encouraging” and show the project has exceeded its
quantitive objectives. In
that six month period 10,569 job seekers were interviewed, an increase
of 25 per cent on the same period in 2005.
3,788 job vacancies and 1,016 offers of training were
registered, almost double the 2005 equivalent.
As
a result the success rate (the ratio between overall referrals and
confirmed placements into private sector jobs) stands at around 23 per
cent.
When reviewed quarterly the figures are also encouraging. In the first
three months of 2006 more than 5,400 job seekers were interviewed, 20
per cent more than in the last quarter of 2005.
In the same period the number of vacancies notified to the ESC
increased by 40 percent.
Second quarter results were as good or better than those in the first
quarter of 2006. Between
April and June almost 5,200 job seekers were interviewed (40 per cent
more than in the same period in 2005).
More than 2,100 vacancies were registered, a 25 per cent
increase on the first quarter of 2006 and almost 50 per cent more than
the same period in 2005.
About
12 per cent of the job seekers interviewed are women, a figure that
remains constant.
The majority of job vacancies still come from NGO’s but the work of
the ESC’s outreach teams, who focus on private sector employers, has
meant the number of private sector vacancies is increasing. Between
January and March private sector vacancies accounted for 30 per cent
of job openings (up from 20 per cent in the last quarter of 2005) and
between April and June almost 40 per cent – although this spike is
largely due to recruitment by a private Jalalabad construction
company.
Gregor Schulz, Chief Technical Officer of the Kabul ESC project, said
“We are very pleased at the success of the project, despite the
difficult operating conditions. Our
research shows that 90 per cent of those who find jobs through the ESC
are still in them six months later, and their average income is more
than US$200 a month. This financial security plays a vital role in
improving the lives of both the employees and their families”.
“In
future the project will start providing information in secondary
schools to help students prepare themselves for work, and advise them
on finding jobs. We will also continue to reach out to the private
sector and carry on with our advocacy work on cultural issues,” he
said.
The project now has 11 offices; two in Kabul and nine in other
provinces – Herat, Mazar, Kunduz, Jalalabad, Pul-I-Khumri, Jowjzan,
Gardez, Kandahar and (opened in 2006) Ghazni. It employs 130 people,
including 127 local staff.
The ESC project is funded by
Germany
’s Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and this
phase of the work will continue until January 2007. The ESC located at
the Ministry of Refuges and Repatriation in
Kabul
is the product of an agreement between ILO and the UN refugee agency
UNHCR, and will continue until the end of 2006.
For
more information please contact:
Gregor
Schulz
Employment Services Project,
Kabul
.
Mob: +93-(0)70-232489
Krisdaporn
Singhaseni
Information Officer – ILO
Bangkok
Tel: +66 (0) 2288 1664
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Public Information
