Pakistan’s Employment Boom: 5.5 Million New Jobs Created in the Last Three Years

According to the findings of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan’s economy created 5.5 million jobs over the last three years – on an average of 1.84 million jobs per year, which is far higher than the yearly average of new job creation during the 2008-18 decade (PBS).

According to the Labour Force Survey 2020-21, the Sindh province remained an exception, with the unemployment rate falling to 3.9 percent in three years, while the unemployment rate in the other three provinces increased – the highest being 8.8 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) during the last fiscal year.

According to a poll done by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate was at 6.3 percent at the conclusion of the previous fiscal year, which was better than the previous year but higher than the 5.8 percent reported at the end of the PML-N era. The survey has not yet been formally issued by the Planning Ministry or the PBS.

According to Ministry of Planning and Development officials, the survey results were validated on Wednesday by a technical committee comprised of government and independent specialists. For the survey, the PBS covered 6,808 enumeration blocks and 99,904 homes.

According to the results, the number of employed persons would rise to 67.3 million by June 2021, up from 61.7 million at the conclusion of the PML-mandate. N’s

However, the official unemployment rate, which was 5.8 percent in June 2018, rose to 6.3 percent by the conclusion of the third year of the PTI government. The lowest unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in Sindh, which is managed by the Pakistan Peoples Party, but it was 8.8 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, followed by 6.8 percent in Punjab – the two provinces governed by the governing party.

The inclusion of contributing family workers in the definition of employed persons whose proportion of total employment was more than one-fifth was a crucial cause for the overall low unemployment rate of 6.3 percent. Employers’ share has stayed stable at 1.4 percent over the last three years. Employees’ portion fell from 42.4 percent to 42 percent in three years, while own-account workers’ share increased to 35.5 percent, according to the poll.