Pakistan’s unemployment rate stands at 6.3% with 4.51 million jobless

• Agriculture sector employs 37.4%, while services sector employs 37.2% of 72 million workforce

Pakistan’s unemployment rate stands at 6.3%, with an unemployed population of 4.51 million, according to the Economic Survey 2023-24 released on Tuesday. 

The survey, based on the latest available Labour Force Surveys (LFS) 2020-21, reports that the total labour force is 71.76 million, with 48.5 million in rural areas and 23.2 million in urban areas. 

The employed labour force is 67.25 million, comprising 45.7 million rural and 21.5 million urban workers.

As per a news report, the employment structure in Pakistan has evolved, with technological transformation shifting employment from the agriculture sector (37.4%) to industry and services. 

The services sector, now the largest growing sector, employed 37.2% of the workforce in 2020-21.

Youth unemployment (aged 15-24) is the highest at 11.1%, with 10.0% for males and 14.4% for females. The 25-34 age group follows with a 7.3% unemployment rate, where 5.4% of males and 13.3% of females are unemployed. 

Female unemployment is notably higher, especially among the 15-24 age group.

Over 13.53 million Pakistanis were working abroad in over 50 countries until April 2024. Approximately 96% of these workers have found employment in Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, contributing significantly to Pakistan’s economy through remittances.

In 2023, the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) and Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) registered 862,625 workers for overseas employment, a 4% increase from 2022. 

Saudi Arabia employed 49.5% (426,951) of these workers, followed by the UAE with 26.7%. Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Malaysia also employed a significant number of Pakistani workers.

on the other hand, according to the Economic Survey, Pakistan’s population growth rate at national level is 2.55%. Despite comprising some 50% of population, women’s participation in country’s labour force is considerably lower than that of men.

In contrast, the growth rate in urban areas is 3.65%, which is higher than population growth rate in rural areas — 1.90%— due to rural-urban migration.

The population density increased from 260.88 persons per square km in 2017 to 303 in 2023. Additionally, the average household size has decreased from 6.39 in 2017 to 6.30 in 2023.