Some of this large number of people are jobless and some others are engaged in informal or temporary jobs – a state which could be considered disguised unemployment.
In fact, about 2.68 million people aged over 15 years are completely unemployed in the country, according to findings of the survey-2016-17, conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
It found that around 665,000 graduates who are expecting white-colour jobs do not have such opportunities and there are 3.50 million persons with higher secondary degrees who are deprived of job opportunities.
Lead economist of World Bank Dhaka office Zahid Hussain called this wastage of manpower. “Potential of a large number of labour force is just not being utilised,” he told Prothom Alo.
Pointing out that educated people of Bangladesh show reservations to jobs like operating a machine, Zahid Hussain added that there is a mismatch between supply of workforce and demand of their level of skills.
According to the survey, of the 6.575 million ‘underutilised’ people, some 3.456 million are female and 3.119 are male. Nearly two third or 4.284 million of them are between 15 years and 29 years of age.
Of the estimated 2.68 million unemployed people of over 15 years of age, the number of male is 1.35 million and female 1.33 million. These people do not get opportunity of working even for an hour a week, the survey suggests.
The number of people categorised in the survey report as “potential labour force” who would come to job market any time would be 2.434 million including 1.6 million women.
*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza
Source: Prothom Alo.