The World Food Programme has reported that the labor market situation in Afghanistan remained fragile during the fourth week of May, with access to daily wage work dropping to less than two days per week. According to the report published on Tuesday, May 31, job opportunities have decreased by 20 percent compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n
The agency added that access to work has also fallen by 16 percent compared to the three-year average, indicating a continuing recession in the country’s labor market. This reduction in income opportunities comes as many residents rely on daily wage jobs to meet their basic living needs.<\/p>\n
In the livestock market, the price of a one-year-old female sheep increased by six percent ahead of Eid al-Adha due to heightened demand. This price rise has occurred despite a decline in family purchasing power compared to previous years.<\/p>\n
The World Food Programme described the supply of goods in the country’s markets as generally stable but warned that high transportation costs, regional trade uncertainties, and heavy reliance on imports pose risks to market stability. These factors have also contributed to localized price fluctuations.<\/p>\n
In the food sector, national average prices have remained relatively stable in recent weeks, with slight weekly decreases recorded in some staple items. However, compared to last year, the prices of wheat have risen by 14 percent, flour by 9 to 12 percent, rice by up to 38 percent, cooking oil by four percent, sugar by 25 percent, and salt by 10 percent.<\/p>\n
The report emphasized that the annual price hikes reflect the increase in commodity prices between October 2023 and March 2024\u2014a period marked by the closure of the border with Pakistan and changes in trade routes through Iran and Central Asia, which raised import costs.<\/p>\n
This report comes as millions of Afghans under Taliban rule face unemployment, income reduction, and rising living costs. Humanitarian organizations have previously warned that the lack of effective economic policies and existing restrictions have intensified pressure on vulnerable families, sustaining an urgent need for humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The World Food Programme reports a 20% drop in job opportunities in Afghanistan amid rising prices and economic challenges under Taliban rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}