Those with 12 years + education are 8% of adults but have 40% of government jobs , 30 % of employed men and women with 12+ years of education work for government.

Pakistan has two labour markets. A degree is the ticket between them.

The Labour Force Survey 2024-25 shows the split:

• 81% of government employees report an old-age pension. Among private employees without a degree it is 1%. With a degree, 6%.

• 85% of government employees get paid annual leave. In the private sector it is 10% to 32%.

• Degree holders are 8% of adults but hold 40% of government jobs.

• 3 in 10 working graduates are employed by the state. For workers with no formal education it is 1.8%.

Roughly 77 million Pakistanis work. About 5 million have the state’s security behind them. Most of those jobs go to the people who already had the most schooling.

Over 28 million working adults have no formal education. Fewer than 1 in 50 of them has a government job.
This is not an argument against education, or against pensions. If anything, it shows what a secure job is worth, and how few people can get one.

The questions are where to start:

• Should the benefits that make a government job attractive be more widely available?
• Who gets access to the education that opens that door?
• What happens to the majority who will never hold the credential?