Unemployment, economic instability force 350,000 Pakistanis to leave country in six months
Pakistan
The emigrants include highly educated and technical professionals
LAHORE (Web Desk) – Rising unemployment, economic instability, and low wages have driven approximately 350,000 Pakistanis to leave the country in the first six months of 2025.
The emigrants include highly educated and technical professionals, with a notable surge in the outflow of doctors and nurses, further straining Pakistan’s already pressured healthcare system.
According to Gulf News, in recent years, large numbers of Pakistani nurses, both male and female, have moved abroad for better pay, safer working conditions, and career growth opportunities, leaving local hospitals short-staffed.
Countries like the Gulf States, the UK, and Canada are particularly attractive to Pakistani medical and technical professionals due to competitive salaries and favorable working environments.
The Economic Survey 2024-25 did not mention unemployment rate for the current year and instead cited the rate in 2020-21, which was, according to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) was 6.3 percent. However, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report issued in April put the unemployment rate at 8 percent.
According to Labour Force Survey, in 2024 Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment (BE&OE) and the OEC registered 727,381 workers for overseas employment.
According to BE&OE, more than 62 percent (452,562) of Pakistani workers moved to Saudi Arabia, followed by Oman (11 percent). The UAE employed 64,130 Pakistani workers (9 percent) while Qatar offered jobs to 40,818 individuals (6 percent). Bahrain and Malaysia hosted 25,198 workers (3 percent) and 5,790 workers (1 percent), respectively.
In 2024, the highest number of workers who went abroad for employment was from Punjab (404,345), followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (187,103), Sindh (60,424), and Tribal areas (29,937).
