Working in Afghanistan has both substantial advantages and disadvantages. If you've ample qualification and relevant skills then you can ace any local or international corporation making big bucks in no time, however, the formal labor market is thin and most public sector dominated. Moreover, local workers and farmers have their unique preference in the region. Yet both of these diverse fields have their own ups and downs on a routine basis. In this blog, we'll be describing the work life living in Afghanistan.

Common Jobs in Afghanistan & Statistics

The most prominent employer sector in Afghanistan are households based, whereas the formal labor market is very weak and most dominated by the government. Just like other developing countries, self-employed businesses and other arrangements are quite common in Afghanistan. Both in rural and urban areas, self-employed businesses are popular with 43 percent of the total rural population invested in it and 48 percent or urban in associated with it. 

Afghan Households

The first source of jobs in most parts of Afghanistan are Afghan households that include unaided family work. These households are majorly responsible upto 77 percent of the total employment sectors throughout the country, making it about 5.8 million jobs. If you assess the number through an aggregate of self-employed people that are contributing into the family, it'll fall into the broader perspective.Moreover, the public sector represents 20 percent of the total employment sector, having doubled salaries jobs around Afghanistan.

Agriculture Sector

Situated in the most agriculture-enriched region, Afghanistan has a wide-spread in agriculture. There are around 60 percent of total employment in agriculture, with three out of every five Afghans having farming as their primary source of income. 

Explore: How to Write a Cover letter for Jobs in Afghanistan

Moreover, this ratio is relatively higher in rural areas where agriculture related jobs are around 70 percent valid as compared to urban areas. In Afghanistan, agriculture based jobs falls into small family business categories where they invest half of their time producing and half of it providing resources to their families. However, the promising point here is that this high reliance on agriculture hasn't been linked to a higher poverty rate. Most prominently, the SouthWest region is solely dedicated to farm/market based agriculture, whereas NorthEast and West Central are predominantly subsistence based.

Find Out: Interview Tips in Afghanistan

Business Sector

Now comes the underdeveloped non-farm sector that is ruled mostly by small-scale trade, family-based business, etc. One of the primary sources of employment in this sector would be retail trade combined with petty trade and shop-keeping activities. Moreover, these activities are followed by construction and services that have vigorously gained a massive inflow of opportunities and promises within the past decade for Afghanistan. 

In the business sector, mostly public domain is the primary source of employment opportunities in the cities and bigger towns, where there are around 1.5 million jobs, out of which 80 percent are based in Kabul. Not only that but the manufacturing and construction sector stands out in the business side where there is only 5 percent employment of the total count in Afghanistan. 

International Aid with Job Opportunities

There are huge sources of aid and donor involvement in Afghanistan due to its strict conditions and under-developed areas. Thus, due to the involvement, all the security and civilian said has been sufficed to construction and services under the domain of logistics and transportation with retail and repair. There is also aid by the US for the business, agriculture, and household sectors which get more than 75 percent of the shares. According to Peace Dividend Trust, thanks to such vast sources of donors, many job opportunities have been created directly, however, their figures are still unestimated due to inaccurate databases and casual nature or the durability of jobs.

 Discover: Main Jobs in Afghanistan

The Peace Dividend Trust has also carried out a survey of 146 businesses winning aid-financed contracts and found that the average contract length is less than half a year with one out of two jobs lasting less than three months. Moreover, they realized that the efforts for enhancement of localized-source running businesses to stick with some deserving workers. According to their analysis, the contract valued at $1.1 billion has managed to create more than 12 thousand jobs for around six months. 

Despite all that there are huge differences in the educational composition and gender preferences in various labor force sectors. If you're at the lowest level of your skills then you can pursue agriculture with highest prevalence with 87 percent having no educational background and no reading or writing skills, resulting in lesser pay. However, if you're looking to earn big bucks then testing your skills is important!