The number of applicants who want to sit Pakistan’s most reputable civil service exam is decreasing, showing a broader shift in career goals.
The number of people taking the CSS examination has dropped by around 48% in the last 4 years, from more than 35,000 in 2022 to about 18,000 in 2025, the Federal Public Service Commission said.
It’s not just CSS that’s dipped. But the pullback is much broader than one exam, with applications for federal government jobs more broadly down more than 55% from 2023 to 2025.
But even with fewer applicants the competition has not become any easier. The interest is there, but the difficulty of the exam has not eased up just because of that. Every year, only a small fraction of candidates get through the CSS process and get a seat in the civil services.
What’s turning young Pakistanis away? Analysts cite a range of reasons: the growing attractiveness of the private sector, entrepreneurship, freelancing and jobs abroad, which now directly compete with the traditional appeal of a government job. Others talk about more practical frustrations – few places to go, recruitment processes that drag on and doubts about whether public sector jobs still offer the financial stability and growth that graduates want.
Taken together, the numbers suggest a quiet reshaping of Pakistan’s job market — even as the CSS exam clings to its reputation as one of the country’s toughest and most respected career paths.
