Pakistan Jobs Market

THE NATIONAL PICTURE · MONTHLY BRIEFING

Pakistan job market report — September 2026

Understand work, opportunity and participation across Pakistan. Official statistics, useful comparisons, and a clearer view of the labour market.

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A monthly edition, not a monthly survey. The figures below are annual national estimates; each shows its observation year. Retrieved on 07/09/2026. Official series can be revised between editions. See the latest edition →

The longer view

How Pakistan’s labour market is changing

Annual series

5.42%2025 observation

0.02.55.07.510.02014: 1.83%20142015: 3.57%2016: 2.29%20162017: 3.20%2018: 4.08%20182019: 4.83%2020: 5.99%20202021: 6.34%2022: 5.29%20222023: 5.24%2024: 5.49%20242025: 5.42%2025

Annual observations, not monthly changes. Hover or focus a point to inspect it. Missing observations are not replaced with zero.

Source: World Bank / ILO · SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS ↗
View chart data
Unemployment, total (% of total labor force) (modeled ILO estimate)
YearPercent
20141.83%
20153.57%
20162.29%
20173.20%
20184.08%
20194.83%
20205.99%
20216.34%
20225.29%
20235.24%
20245.49%
20255.42%

Where people work

Employment by sector

Share of total employment—not advertised vacancies or GDP.

2025 · ILO modelled estimates

Rounded shares may not add to exactly 100%. Select a sector label to view its official source.

Read between the numbers

Three takeaways

  1. Youth and the wider labour force

    In 2025, youth unemployment was 9.6%, compared with 5.4% overall. These are different age groups, not counts of job seekers.

    Youth indicator ↗
  2. Participation matters too

    The male–female participation difference was 56.1 percentage points in 2025. People outside the labour force are not counted as unemployed.

    Participation definition ↗
  3. Employment is broader than vacancies

    Sector shares include existing workers and self-employment. A large sector is not, by itself, evidence of a recruitment surge.

    Explore advertised opportunities →

People & participation

Who participates in the workforce?

Labour force participation as a share of each population ages 15+.

2025 · ILO modelled estimates
Women24.0%
Men80.1%
Women source ↗Men source ↗

People & participation

Unemployment by gender

Unemployed people as a share of the respective labour force, ages 15+.

2025 · ILO modelled estimates
Women6.9%
Men5.0%
Women source ↗Men source ↗

Beyond the headline rate

What kinds of work support livelihoods?

Employment status helps put job-market conditions in context. These measures overlap; they must not be added together.

Transparent by design

How to read this Pakistan employment report

National estimates, consistent definitions

The main dashboard uses Pakistan observations from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, sourced from ILO modelled estimates. Labour force participation includes employed people and unemployed people seeking and available for work. Unemployment is not the share of all residents without a job.

Publication month versus data year

A new edition retrieves the latest available official series each month. Annual observations may stay unchanged across several editions. The reporting year is visible beside every metric; retrieval dates describe our snapshot, not when workers were surveyed.

Comparisons without mixing populations

Gender and sector charts use a shared observation year. Youth refers to ages 15–24; the other participation and employment ratios cover ages 15+. Percentage-point gaps are calculated from the cited series. Missing data is never treated as zero.

Survey figures can differ

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics survey results may use different age coverage, definitions and reference periods from the internationally comparable ILO estimates here. Consult the official PBS Labour Force Survey for survey-specific tables. Do not splice the two series into one trend.

This is an independent presentation of official statistics, not an official government publication, real-time vacancy count, hiring forecast, or guarantee of employment.

From insight to action

Make your next application count.

Use the national context alongside the requirements of a specific role.

Build a resume →Estimate take-home pay →Read career guides →

Open evidence

Sources & data provenance

All national figures come directly from the official World Bank API for Pakistan (PAK), WDI source 2, with ILO attribution. Provider dataset update: 2026-07-13. Retrieved: . Data licence: CC BY 4.0.

View all 14 official indicators and downloadable source data

The report library

Browse monthly editions

Each edition has a permanent link and preserves the official data retrieved at publication. The archive begins with our first published edition; older annual observations are available in the trend charts, not presented as invented past monthly reports.

Small supplementary snapshot · not national statistics

From Pakistan Jobs Market’s own listings

Based on current website records captured for this edition: August 2026 publication dates. Advertisements are not vacancies or a representative sample of Pakistan’s job market.

84 listings · 56 government · 28 private · 0 unspecified
Source: website job listings →