THE Labour Force Survey 2024-25, released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, has some serious flaws. For starters, there are concerns that the unemployment figures it contains do not accurately reflect the true state of joblessness in the country when compared to data from the Population and Housing Census, 2023. This might be put down to sampling errors and other limitations. But the discrepancy is too large for some expert economists to ignore: while the labour market report estimates unemployment at 7.1pc, the census puts this figure at 22.5pc. The government should have explained what is causing this discrepancy, and also why the survey counts people raising poultry at home as ‘employed’. Is it to keep joblessness in the country from looking even worse than it is?

The concerns are not only about the possibility of unemployment being understated. There are also other troubling trends for policymakers to take note of. The jump in unemployment from 6.3pc to a 21-year high of 7.1pc in four years shows significant labour market deterioration. The 31pc surge in the absolute number of unemployed people to 5.9m should set off alarm bells for policymakers. It suggests that the problem goes far beyond ratios as the economy is not creating enough jobs to absorb the 3.5m people entering the workforce every year as growth stagnates to an annual average of less than 2pc. The rise in unemployment cuts across all age groups and gender, but it has particularly hit young people in the 15-29 age group and women. Nearly a million degree holders cannot find work — a sure recipe for disillusionment and unrest. Average wages may have increased. But seen against inflationary trends during this period, it becomes clear that employed people are actually earning far less in real terms than they were in 2021.

Meanwhile, people are fast leaving agriculture and heading towards cities and towns for low-paid, daily-wage jobs in the informal services sector. Agriculture employment is down from 37.4pc to 33.1pc of the workforce. The report shows that growing regional disparities are being reflected in the worsening employment opportunities. KP has the highest unemployment rate at 9.6pc, followed by Punjab at 7.1pc, Balochistan at 5.5pc and Sindh at 5.3pc. More startling is the fact that 117.4m working-age people — mostly women — out of 179.6m are engaged in unpaid domestic and care work. Three out of every four women in the working-age group are stuck at home. The findings, in sum, point to an urgent need for authorities to move away from their economic stabilisation refrain and address structural issues such as the poor business climate, shortage of skilled workforce, gender barriers, and inadequate investment in agriculture and industry to kick-start the economy. That is what we need for employment generation and poverty alleviation.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2025