Md. Zillur Rahaman: Post pandemic employment opportunities are going to be a big challenge not only for the government but also for the private sector. The youth must take up the challenge and campaign to empower them through training and skill learning. Bangladesh has been witnessing a slowdown in private investment over the last couple of years. But the investment has been driven in a big way by the government’s mega projects. It has been not yet sure what will happen after controlling the Covid-19 situation. Obviously there is a big question when will be the investment roll out and how young people will get enough employment opportunities.
Youth unemployment is the situation of young people who are looking for a job, but cannot find a job, with the age range being that defined by the United Nations as 15-24 years old. However, it varies from country to country, particularly in Bangladesh youth maximum age limit is 30 years. An unemployed person is defined as someone who does not have a job but is actively seeking work. In order to qualify as unemployed for official and statistical measurement, the individual must be without employment, willing and able to work, of the officially designated “working age” and actively searching for a position. Youth unemployment rates tend to be higher than the adult rates in every country in the world.
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Today’s young people are the most educated generation ever. Nevertheless, they encounter difficulties in entering and remaining in the labour market. For too many of them, the transition to work is problematic. Opportunities for young people to find a suitable job are bound to the general state of the economy and overall employment situation in a country. However, they are also influenced by the education and skills young people have and the relevance of these skills for the labour market and the possibilities available to youth to apply and use these skills. Mismatches among these factors can lead to long periods of job seeking, intertwined with unemployment spells or periods of low skilled and precarious work. This imposes a heavy toll on young people themselves, but also on the economies and societies of their countries.
| ব্যাংক, ব্যাংকার, ব্যাংকিং, অর্থনীতি ও ফাইন্যান্স বিষয়ক গুরুত্বপূর্ণ খবর, প্রতিবেদন, বিশেষ কলাম, বিনিয়োগ/ লোন, ডেবিট কার্ড, ক্রেডিট কার্ড, ফিনটেক, ব্যাংকের নিয়োগ বিজ্ঞপ্তি ও বাংলাদেশ ব্যাংকের সার্কুলারগুলোর আপডেট পেতে আমাদের অফিসিয়াল ফেসবুক পেজ 'ব্যাংকিং নিউজ', ফেসবুক গ্রুপ 'ব্যাংকিং ইনফরমেশন', 'লিংকডইন', 'টেলিগ্রাম চ্যানেল', 'ইন্সটাগ্রাম', 'টুইটার', 'ইউটিউব', 'হোয়াটসঅ্যাপ চ্যানেল' এবং 'গুগল নিউজ'-এ যুক্ত হয়ে সাথে থাকুন। |
As major provider of jobs, the private sector has a critical role to play in the search for more and better jobs for young people. In this regard, initiatives by individual companies or employers’ associations, at local and national levels, are emerging in many countries. These initiatives are necessarily diverse, depending on the socio-economic, political and institutional context, the youth employment problems at stake as well as the needs and opportunities of the business community in a given country. In general, however, they bear witness of the growing priority companies and employers attach to youth employment issues.
There are 1.2 billion youth in the world aged between 15 and 24, accounting for 17% of the world’s population and out of which 87% of them live in developing countries. According to a World Bank report, youth unemployment is expected to be a major problem for Bangladesh over the next decade. The report said the problem of youth unemployment is global, with a third of the world’s 1.8 billion young people currently not involved in employment, education and training. It is also mentioned that one billion youth will enter the job market in the next decade, but only 40% are expected to be able to get jobs that currently exist. The World Bank report compared the situation and indicators in four focus countries- Bangladesh, El Salvador, Tunisia and Uganda.
In 2013, about 41% of Bangladesh youth were considered NEET (not in employment, education or training) and the portion of unemployed NEETs was 78% according to the report. This is because of absence of quality education and skilled labour forces are the main causes of youth unemployment in Bangladesh.
The latest survey of the Bangladesh government has found 2.6 million unemployed people in the country. The unemployment rate has slightly changed — from 4.3 percent in 2013 to 4.2 per cent last year — though the government created substantial job opportunities during the period. The rural areas have 1.82 million unemployed people, more than double the number of those 0.77 million, in urban areas, according to the latest Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) labour force survey. The urban-rural population ratio is 30:70 in Bangladesh.
Analysts observe that the unemployed population should be higher than what was shown in the survey. Unlike many western economies where people get state benefits during periods of unemployment, people in Bangladesh are not entitled to such benefits or social security supports. Although Bangladesh’s private sector creates more employment opportunities than the public sector, private investment as percentage of gross domestic product has remained stalled for quite some time — a stagnation which is a major reason for high unemployment rate.
Youth unemployment in Bangladesh may be more than double this year if the country takes some more months to contain the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused economic output and demand to fall drastically. According to a new study on the effect of the pandemic, the youth unemployment rate will go up to 24.8 per cent in case of a six-month-long containment of the virus. The report said the number would go up to 1.67 million if the country takes six more months to curb the deadly virus.
Most of the educated youths are seriously worried about their employment and future after the five months of shutdown period due to the pandemic. Somehow, the employment and skills should have among the youth is not well discussed around the different forums of respective arenas. According to a research report of the government and a2i project where it has been found that almost 20.44 million people have lost their jobs by June 2020. Though some of them are getting back their jobs, the number of unemployment is very big.
The country’s large youth population has to be equipped with the right set of skills to make them employable in the fast-changing job market. Preparing the youth is crucial for the economy as some jobs are disappearing while new opportunities are opening up. So, we should look into this very important topic of employment and skill they require particularly to survive in the post-pandemic era.
Md. Zillur Rahaman is a Banker and Freelance Columnist.
