Pakistan's unemployment rate jumps to 7.1% as 8 million people remain jobless

ISLAMABAD: The unemployment rate has surged by 0.8 percentage points to reach 7.1 percent, according to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2024-2025 released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

According to the latest LFS, the number of unemployed people has crossed a staggering figure of eight million.

Pakistan’s population stands at a staggering 240 million, while the labour force volume has risen to 77.2 million.

The working-age population stands at 43 percent, while the unemployed or inactive population stands at 53.8 percent.

The country’s overall population of 3.3 percent is jobless, while the services sector remained on top for employment provision in the Labour Force Survey.

As per the survey, as many as 31.8 million people are employed in the services sector.

The employment rate in the agriculture sector stands at 33.1 percent, while the employment rate stands at 25.7 percent in the industrial sector.

Interestingly, the agriculture sector has provided employment to 25.5 million people, whereas the industrial sector has employed 19.8 million people. The country’s average monthly income stands at Rs 39,042, but the average pay has only increased by Rs 15,014 in the last five years.

The average pay stood at Rs 24,028 in the year 2020-2021.

Moreover, the men’s current monthly average pay stands at Rs 39,302, while the figure for women stands at Rs 37,347.