In absolute terms, the number of people actively looking for jobs increased by 0.92 million to 4.71 million in FY19 from 3.79 million the previous year as the number of the country’s total workforce rose to 68.73 million from 65.5 million during the period under review, reports Dawn News.

It also meant that at least 3.23 million people entered the market seeking employment at a time when the national economy’s capacity to create new jobs had just started shrinking and the businesses had started laying off their employees owing to the emerging macroeconomic imbalances, the newspaper reported.

The increase in unemployment was observed in both males and females, with the male unemployment rate rising from 5.1pc to 5.9pc and female unemployment rate jumping from 8.3pc to 10pc.

The disaggregated LFS data shows that the unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 7.9 percent, up from 7.2 percent a year before, Dawn News reported.

But the increase in unemployment was more pronounced in rural areas where it surged to 6.4pc from 5pc, reported the newspaper.