Dynaimcs of Occupational Labor Markets (OLMs) Polarization: Evidence from Pakistan
Author: Mohsin Gulzar

Vast technological advancement with increased capital intensive production have changed the demand of skill sets dramatically across occupational labor markets. Such phenomenon of unequal skill sets distribution across skill spectrum in labor market is usually termed as “Job Polarization”. Current research study is an attempt to find any such trend of job polarization in Pakistan’s labor market context. Following the 18th constitutional amendment, investigation of occupational growth and polarization is concentrated on provincial occupational labor markets by using micro data stemming from labor force survey. Overall 27 occupations along with their growth and wage level at two digits as per Pakistan Standard Classification of Occupations (PSCO) have been used for analysis over the period of 1990-2014. Comprehensive analytical tools have been used to normalize the data and to extract meaningful information regarding various occupations. To achieve research objective, study have followed three main methodologies; Erik Wright and Rachel Dwyer (2003) to analyze the dynamics of occupational market and wages growth, Autor, Levy and Murnane (2003) to check the growth of occupations across skill spectrum and finally Dauth (2014) to check for polarization trend and to quantify the magnitude of polarization. Result suggests that job and wage growth is mostly concentrated in high skilled occupations requiring cognitive skills. Provincial labor markets except Baluchistan are facing occupational polarization and skill sets are not increasing with equal ratio. Sindh is highest polarized market with most urbanized structure followed by KP. At regional level, urban centers are more polarized in all provinces as compared to rural localities. Only Baluchistan urban is not polarized and that is because of rural-urban migration where workers in middle skills are moving towards cities. Study confirms the hypothesis that occupational labor market of Pakistan are facing polarization trend at provincial level. If not taken care at initial stage, this trend will polarize the entire labor markets and will increase the greater income inequalities among public. Supervisor:- Dr. Shujaat Farooq

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Keywords : Dynaimcs of Occupational Labor, Pakistan, Polarization
Supervisor: Shujaat Farooq

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