Due to various government initiatives to tackle the unemployment problem, around 65.7 percent youths obtained jobs after completion of master’s degree in last year. According to a recent survey, the rate of unemployed youths with bachelor degree, however, remains at an alarming 36.6 percent, posing the biggest challenge for the government to confront in 2020.
Due to lack of quality education, a disparity among the job seekers is being created in the occupation market. Lack of proper engagement between job seekers and providers is also contributing to the growing disparity, opined experts. Joblessness is higher among graduate and post-graduate youths of the country. Around 33.19 percent of them are unemployed, according to a study report of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
GDP growth alone cannot be the indicator of development, and improvement of living standards is imperative along with GDP growth, said renowned economist Dr Rizwanul Islam. Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank in Bangladesh, said that there are three reasons behind the state of joblessness among educated youths.
“Lack of quality education, mismatch between educational institutes and job market and few job opportunities against the huge number of graduate and postgraduate youths are the main obstacles for employment,” he added. He explained that there are many youths in the country who completed their BA and MA degrees from National University, but could not find suitable jobs for lack of quality education from those universities and colleges.
Unemployment among the educated youth in Bangladesh is increasing day by day. The rate has doubled in just 7 years. The unemployment rate is the highest among the highly educated. Unemployment is classified into several categories by type. Notable among them are permanent unemployment, temporary unemployment, and seasonal unemployment etc.
Job market specialists suggested that to overcome this situation, long-term and effective plans need to be undertaken through various integrated initiatives, including designed families, making the education system suitable for work, creating new workplaces, increasing domestic and foreign investment, and eliminating the lack of capital. Former adviser Dr Rizwanul of International Labour Organisation, said, “Bangladesh is achieving GDP growth, but couldn’t create employment, especially in the manufacturing sector.”
Quality employment is necessary for good income, and it is vital for eradication of poverty and improvement of living standard, he added.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s economic adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman said, creating employment has become a problem despite the country’s progress. On GDP growth in measuring a country’s development, it is true that GDP cannot measure all parameters of economic growth. GDP growth is much more dependable as an individual unit rather than a parameter of measurement of a country’s economic progress, he stressed.
Economist Nazrul Islam of the United Nations, said environmental and social impact will have to be included while measuring economic development. The saddest part is that unemployment is rising; on the one hand, and thousands of vacancies are left in government jobs.
There is no realization to recruit people in those posts. It is not possible to build a prosperous rich country keeping billions of hands out work. People want to see that immediate action is taken in this regard, he added.