Pakistan’s Female Gig Workers: Not Who You’d Expect

We at Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics dug into the Labour Force Survey 2024-25 microdata to profile the 462,596 women doing gig work in Pakistan — and the picture defies the usual assumptions.

They’re mostly rural, not urban. 60.7% of female gig workers are in rural areas — the exact opposite of the overall gig workforce, which skews 66% urban. Platforms that don’t require leaving the house — teaching, selling goods online — appear to be opening a path to income for rural women that physical workplaces never did.

Teaching dominates — by a wide margin. 39% of all female gig work is online/home tuition, far above any other category.

Selling goods (21%) and freelancing (15%) follow.

Education is polarized, not middling. Nearly 1 in 5 female gig workers have no formal education at all — yet another 17% hold a Master’s degree.

There’s remarkably little in between, suggesting gig platforms are serving two very different groups of women simultaneously: those shut out of formal education entirely, and highly credentialed women still finding gig work (teaching, freelancing) more accessible than formal employment.

They’re young and mostly married. 63% are under 35, and 62% are married — consistent with gig work functioning as flexible income that fits around household responsibilities in ways a 9-to-5 often doesn’t.


📊 GDAP | Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics

Source: Labour Force Survey 2024-25 microdata