摘要：Pakistan's unemployment rate among individuals with higher education has increased rapidly in recent years. However, very little research is conducted so far on this phenomenon in Pakistan. This paper investigates the effect of higher education attainment on unemployment rate in urban and rural areas of Pakistan. Data of 10 years is taken from Labor Force Survey (LFS) for four provinces. Regression analysis is conducted to examine the data. The evidence suggests a strong positive relationship between population with higher levels of education (HE) and their unemployment rate. That is, with the increase in HE population there is greater increase in their unemployment rate and the results are more pronounced for rural areas compared to urban. Female unemployment incidence was found less than male counterparts. The paper also documents that higher education unemployment rate contributes more towards total unemployment at different levels of education. The unique feature of this study is that this empirical work examines the effect of higher education and unemployment with spatial differences that is still not fully explored in Pakistan as well as in international context. Further research is required to investigate the effect of different disciplines and quality of higher education on unemployment rate.
