By Zabiullah Zhanmal
The unemployment rate has peaked to 40 percent in Afghanistan, showing a 15 percent increase as compared to the same time last year, officials said Friday.
According to Central Statistics Organization (CSO), the unemployment figure for 2015 was only 25 percent.
Insecurity, lack of jobs in government and the private sector organizations and a downturn of industries are the main factors behind growing unemployment, CSO officials said.
"Those who had jobs are now unemployed and at the same time no new jobs were created," deputy CSO Chief Haseebullah Muahid said. "Unemployment has had a rapid growth and it rose by about 15 percent."
In addition, the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) officials also agreed with SCO statements and admitted that numerous factory workers are jobless.
According to ACCI, several skilled workers are also unemployed due to economic issues facing factories at industrial parks.
"Lack of development projects has resulted in increased unemployment," ACCI executive chief Atiqullah Nasrat said.
Based on the figures provided by the ministry of labor and social affairs, over 1.8 million eligible workers are unemployed in Afghanistan.
This comes as thousands of Afghans are reportedly fleeing the country due to what they believe is lack of jobs and security.
This has caused a huge refugee crisis across Europe as daily thousands of immigrants, most of them from Syria and Afghanistan, are illegally entering European countries in a bid to find jobs and a peaceful life.