A major portion of Afghan population is formed by youths. But most of them are uneducated and unskilled. Since the ouster of Taliban from government, young Afghans have worked hard to get education in a hope to secure jobs in government and non-government organizations. Majority of Afghans who are uneducated and unskilled find it difficult to find works on daily wages as finding an employment is a difficult task even for educated Afghans including fresh university graduates.

With assistance from the international community, Afghanistan’s economy has had a noteworthy growth althoughwith little or no benefit the poor section of the society. As the international community is diminishing its role here, the employment opportunities for Afghanistan are expected to further shrink. Reduction of foreign aids to Afghanistan will affect its economy – an economy that is already failing to fulfill the employment needs of the masses.

Thousands of Afghans who have been working for foreign companies, NGOs, military forces and other international organizations are now going unemployed. NGOs and private companies are downsizing due to reducing foreign aids to Afghanistan.  Definitely, the graph of unemployed will go higher.

As the future continues to remain uncertain, bad security persists and employment opportunities are shrinking, the hopes of Afghan people are fading away. The security condition is expected to further deteriorate. This will hamper the little reconstruction and developmental works and business activities in certain provinces of Afghanistan from growing. As a result, more Afghans will go unemployed.  

Persistence of the problem of unemployment in the country is doing much to widen the gap between people and the government. Among the several problems given birth by joblessness, three of them seem to be very concerning: Firstly, it is firmly believed that desperate youths join the insurgents groups who promise them attractive rewards. This can be conceived a major reason for soaring number of insurgents and insecurity graph in Afghanistan. Secondly, people who eventually give up hope after continuously failing to get a job might get addicted to drugs. The number of drug addicts in the country has crossed the figure of 2 million. Majority of addicted people are those who have failed to find a proper source of income for their families. And thirdly, every year thousands Afghans travel, at the risk of their lives, to other countries of the world to escape poverty and unemployment. In this way the work force of Afghanistan is utilized by other countries at times when Afghanistan itself is in dire need of reconstruction and developmental works.

Before the latest presidential election, the people witnessed hefty promises from the candidates. All the presidential hopefuls have said they have specific plans for boosting the economy, creating job opportunities and eradicating poverty. The winning candidate must give practical shape to his promises. People are eagerly awaiting the new government and hope it will address their problems.