Unemployment is caused in the situation when a country is not making full use of its resources. Unemployment is high when resources are being wasted and people's incomes are depressed. During such periods, economic distress also spills over to affect people's emotions and family lives. In Pakistan these days, the unemployment rate is increasing in absolute as well as in percentage terms even though it is greater in rural areas as compared to the urban ones. That is because the clusters of industries that offer greater chances of employment to people are usually situated in urban areas. The major causes for unemployment among the poor in Pakistan include lack of technical skills, little or no education, low income worsened by indebtedness to moneylenders, no career guidance, lack of awareness regarding available jobs, high expectations without commensurate experience, little understanding of work ethics and the weak over all economy of the country. Due to these factors, our youth is not utilizing the chances that come his way. New technologies have also disrupted the job market as they tend to render old skills obsolete and force a lot of people to study new skills, which they do in tens of thousands but are offered very few job vacancies for their newly-acquired skills. -AHMER ZIA UL HAQ, Karachi, via e-mail, April 16.