Unemployment in the country is increasing faster due to lack of employment.
The number of unemployed people stands more than 2.6 million at present, reaching an 18-year-high, says a report of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
According to the BBS report, on average only 0.3 million people were employed every year in the past two years.
However, 1.3 million people were said to have been employed every year in the budget session of the current fiscal year.
The situation as reflected in the statistics does not support with the government’s claim that massive employment opportunities have been created in past few years.
General Economics Division (GED) member of the Planning Commission Shamsul Alam told Prothom Alo that the BBS report of employment should be scrutinised further. The findings do not match the country’s growth.
Employment of only 0.6 million people in the past two years is not acceptable, he added.
BBS considers unemployed those who are not engaged in wage labour even for a single hour in a week.
The number of such unemployed people is, according to the BBS report, over 2.6 million. But, it was more than 2.5 million in 2013.
The number of jobless people has increased around 40,000 in just two years.
According to the BBS estimate, as many as 74 per cent people are young among the unemployed.
The number of employed females has increased but it decreased in case of their male counterparts. A total of 1.3 million males and more than 1.2 million females are now not engaged with any productive work.
Employment: A poor state of employment generation was also reflected in labour force survey. According to labour force survey-2013, five crore 81 lakh people were in work force then. In 2015, work force was increased up to Five crore 87 lakh. That means six lakh people were added to work force by two years.
BBS data showed that 13 lakh people were added to work force in each year from 2011 to 2013. Scenario was the same in previous five years.
The World Bank’s chief economist in Dhaka Zahid Hussain told Prothom Alo this employment rate does not match the growth rate. There had to be more employment considering the growth rate. The basic problem is that we cannot generate appropriate employment for the educated young generation. Productivity, therefore, has been lesser than expectations.
Zahid Hussain observed that most of the employment in this country is generated in the informal sector. There must be more employments in formal sectors like industry and services.
Source: Prothom Alo
