ISLAMABAD: The National Labor Force Survey (NLFS) 2024-25 has clearly indicated that the unemployment has increased in all four provinces of Pakistan over the past five years.
According to the survey, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was the province that showed the most significant increase in the unemployment rate, its rate going up from 8.81% to 9.2%, which is a 0.39% rise. The unemployment rate in Punjab also increased as it changed from 6.8% to 7.1%, a 0.3% point increment. Sindh had a more considerable increase in the rate as it went up from 3.9% to 5.1%, a 1.2% point rise. The story of Balochistan was not very different, with the rate of joblessness going up from 4.3% to 5.4%.
Thus, around 5.9 million people in Pakistan are jobless while the national unemployment rate is around 7.1% which is an increase of 0.8 percentage points from 2020-21.
The survey additionally revealed unemployment rates across education levels. In 2025 11.9% of those holding master’s MPhil or PhD qualifications are jobless compared to 12.2% during 2020-21. Among those, with a bachelor’s degree 10.9% are still unemployed.
For those possessing an intermediate-level education 12.5% remain unemployed whereas 8.4% of matriculates have failed to find employment. The unemployment figure for people with less than matric education stands at 6% and within the group it has increased from 3.2%, to 4.4%.
The survey highlighted that according to the 2023 census Pakistan’s population stands at 241.49 million and 3.3% of the people are currently, without jobs.
Overall, the NLFS indicates a 0.8% increase in unemployment over the past five years, reflecting a growing challenge for the country’s labor market.
Planning Ministry projects over 95,000 jobs in next 5–7 years
More than 95,000 employment opportunities are expected to arise within 5 to 7 years as a result of various development projects, according to the Ministry of Planning.
The Ministry of Planning’s projection was represented in detail in the official document. It was reported that the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) greenlit the twelfth development initiatives by the end of October 2025. These initiatives spanned multiple areas of energy, water, agriculture, governance, health, and education. Further, six significant development projects moved up to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for consideration.
It is noted in the paper that these substantial undertakings will be a source of 2,501 new immediate job openings. It also mentions a total Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) budget of PKR 1,000 billion, from which PKR 330 billion has already got the green light for the first four months, and 33% of the funds have already been released. Over PKR 134 billion has been utilized during this period.
In the case of infrastructure, only PKR 46 billion of a PKR 626 billion budget had been used by October. While the energy sector spent PKR 2.54 billion in the first four months of the development work, the transport and communication sectors, with a combined allocation of PKR 333 billion, reported the spending of PKR 25.93 billion.
The energy sector has been given a budget of PKR 122.65 billion for the current fiscal year while physical planning and housing have been allocated PKR 72.73 billion (of which PKR 4.69 billion has been spent). Water sector has been given PKR 97.9 billion (with PKR 12.95 billion utilized). The social sector has been awarded a total of PKR 169 billion, including PKR 60.75 billion for the education sector (with PKR 8.97 billion spent), whereas health and nutrition projects accommodation was PKR 16.84 billion with only PKR 0.14 billion having been spent so far.
Governance projects were given a budget of PKR 11.17 billion, of which PKR 0.65 billion was spent in four months, the Science and Technology sector benefitted from PKR 37.59 billion (with PKR 1.69 billion utilized), while foreign exchange-funded projects were allocated PKR 25 billion, of which PKR 6.3 billion has already been utilized.
The Ministry asserted the point that besides substantial employment, these projects’ implementation would have a positive ripple effect, leading to sustainable development in the core sectors of the economy.
ALSO READ: KP government to recruit 16,000 more teachers across the province
