Pakistan freelancers earn $549 million in July-September, up 45%: non-IT work more than doubles

Pakistan’s freelancers brought $549 million into the country in July to September 2026, the first quarter of the 2026-27 financial year, up 45% from $377.3 million a year earlier, according to State Bank data reported by Nukta and TechJuice. The surprise is where the growth came from: not coding, but everything else.

IT vs non-IT: the split

Type of freelancer	Q1 FY26	Q1 FY27	Growth
IT freelancers	$272m	$333m	+22%
Non-IT freelancers	$104m	$215m	+106%
Total	$377.3m	$549m	+45%

Non-IT freelancing covers content writers, voice-over artists, online teachers and e-commerce specialists, Nukta reported. That group more than doubled its earnings in a year. Month by month, September was the strongest at about $197 million, according to Pakera’s breakdown of SBP figures.

The wider picture is good too. The government’s first-quarter economic report put services exports at $2.7 billion, up 23%, with IT and tech exports at $1.25 billion.

Who is doing this work?

Pakistan has an estimated three million freelancers. Dr Noman Ahmed Said, chief executive of Si Global and a freelancing coach, said that could grow to four million within a year if the government builds a national roadmap with the private sector. He also called for technology-focused education from school level.

Ibrahim Amin, chairman of the Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA), said freelancers are “not fully tapping global opportunities” because of gaps in emerging tech skills, communication and business development.

Our take: good news with an AI asterisk

The numbers are real money, and for many households, especially young people without formal jobs, freelancing is now the job. But look at which categories are growing fastest: writing, voice work, tutoring and online store management. These are exactly the tasks AI tools are getting better at every month.

That doesn’t mean the growth is fake or about to vanish. Clients still pay people to manage the AI, check its work and handle what it can’t. But nobody in these reports explains why non-IT doubled, and the data can’t tell us whether that’s new clients, better rates, or simply more Pakistanis routing earnings through official channels. Treat the 106% as a headline, not a trend, until a few more quarters confirm it.

What’s clearer is the advice. The freelancers most likely to keep growing are the ones who use AI to deliver faster and add the human part clients still pay for: judgement, local knowledge, Urdu and regional languages, and reliability. Amin’s point about business development matters as much as any technical course.

What to watch

The October to December numbers will show whether the non-IT jump holds. If freelancers keep this pace, the sector is on track for well over $2 billion this financial year, a figure the government will lean on heavily in its export story.