Qudsia Bano

Pakistan’s agriculture sector now accounts for 35.1 percent of total employment in 2024–25, reflecting a shift in the composition of the labour force and changes in sectoral engagement recorded in the latest Labour Force Survey. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has released the 37th round of the survey, which provides detailed employment distribution across agriculture, industry, and services, along with changes in the labour market structure over time.

According to the Labour Force Survey 2024–25 document available with Wealth Pakistan, employment in agriculture, forestry, and fishing declined from 37.4 percent in 2020–21 to 35.1 percent in 2024–25 under the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) framework. The survey reports that agriculture remains the single largest source of employment in Pakistan, although its share has decreased compared to previous findings.

The survey presents two sets of estimates: one under the 13th ICLS, which includes own-use subsistence agriculture producers, and another under the 19th ICLS, which excludes such workers. Under the 19th ICLS framework, the agriculture sector accounts for 33.1 percent of total employment. Both measurement approaches indicate a downward shift in agriculture’s employment share, reflecting changes in the broader distribution of the workforce across sectors.

In comparison with agriculture, the industry and services sectors have a larger combined share of employment. Under the 13th ICLS approach, industry accounts for 24.9 percent of employment, while services account for 39.9 percent. Under the 19th ICLS methodology, industry’s share rises to 25.7 percent and services stand at 41.2 percent. These findings highlight that services remain the largest employer after agriculture, with wholesale and retail trade, community and personal services, transport, and manufacturing playing major roles in employment growth.

The survey provides a gender-based breakdown of employment within each sector. Under the 19th ICLS definition, 61.4 percent of all employed women work in agriculture, compared to 24.5 percent of employed men. For men, the highest share of employment is in wholesale and retail trade at 20.1 percent. The data indicates that sectoral employment patterns differ significantly by gender, with women predominantly concentrated in agriculture and men more evenly distributed across agriculture, industry, and services.

The Labour Force Survey also documents changes within the industrial and services sectors. Manufacturing employment stands at 14.8 percent under the 19th ICLS definition and 14.4 percent under the 13th ICLS approach, marking a slight decline from 14.9 percent in 2020–21. Construction employment increased marginally from 9.5 percent to 9.6 percent under the older definition and stands at 9.9 percent under the updated definition.

Employment in wholesale and retail trade rose from 14.4 percent to 15.5 percent under the 13th ICLS definition. Transport, storage, and communication also saw an increase from 6.2 percent to 6.4 percent. Community, social, and personal services rose from 16.0 percent to 17.4 percent, showing an upward trend in several service subsectors. The survey further presents occupational distributions to illustrate how individuals are spread across managerial, professional, clerical, service-oriented, agricultural, craft-related, machine operation, and basic labour roles.

These occupational categories align with the sectoral distribution of employment. The educational profile of workers shows that employment is widely distributed across those with no schooling, primary, middle, matric, intermediate, and degree-level qualifications. The methodology of the Labour Force Survey ensures representation of both rural and urban populations. Data were collected from 53,974 households across 3,796 primary sampling units. The sample includes 2,320 rural and 1,476 urban units.

Fieldwork was conducted throughout four quarters from July 2024 to June 2025, enabling seasonal variation to be captured. The survey uses the 2023 census as the population base, adjusted with an annual growth rate of 2.075 percent. The decrease in agriculture’s employment share is accompanied by a corresponding increase in employment in other sectors.

While agriculture remains central to rural livelihoods and continues to engage a large portion of the female workforce, national-level employment distribution is gradually shifting toward non-agricultural activities. These findings documented in the Labour Force Survey 2024–25 provide an updated statistical picture of Pakistan’s sectoral employment structure and the evolving composition of the workforce.

Credit: INP-WealthPk