Four out of five people working in Pakistan have no formal job protection, according to the country's latest Labour Force Survey. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics survey for 2024-25 puts informal employment at 80.8 per cent of all employed people, leaving formal employment at just 19.2 per cent.

The informal share is almost as high outside farming. The survey puts 72.1 per cent of non-agricultural employment in the informal sector, and records about 4.6 million people — 6 per cent of all employed people — working from their own homes. These workers keep much of the economy running while standing outside the systems meant to protect them, from written contracts and minimum wages to social security and pensions.

A labour market under strain

The survey paints a wider picture of a labour market struggling to absorb a growing workforce. The unemployment rate stands at 7.1 per cent, the labour force participation rate at 46.3 per cent, and the average monthly wage at Rs 39,042, according to the bureau's published figures. The working-age population keeps expanding faster than formal job creation, pushing millions of people into informal work that offers flexibility but little security.

Campaigners and researchers have long warned that informal workers are the first to lose income when prices rise or work dries up, and the hardest to reach with state support. The survey's findings underline why extending basic protections — registration, contracts and social security — to informal workers remains one of Pakistan's biggest employment challenges.