The Covid-19 pandemic has brought unimaginable miseries for private job holders, who have been leading an unstable life for over a year. The successive waves of coronavirus and the subsequent job cuts have put their livelihoods at stake.
According to a survey conducted by Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Oxfam in Bangladesh, 61.57 percent people had lost their jobs during the March-April period last year, due to the pandemic.
The study also found that only 15 percent of these people were able to go back to their jobs within one month, but the rest of the 85 percent remained unemployed for a longer time.
The income of people has also declined significantly during the pandemic.
Rizwanul Islam, a former special adviser of the Employment Sector at the International Labour Organization (ILO), told Bangladesh Post, “My estimate is that over one crore people went out of work during the period of the first lockdown in April-May 2020. Adding 30 lakh who were already unemployed before the pandemic, one can conclude that some 1.35 crore people – which is about one-fifth of the labour force - were out of work at that time.”
Regarding the possible ways to cope with the current situation, he suggested recognizing the considerable degree of uncertainty about the pandemic and carrying out economic activities within constraints.
He said that policies and programmes have to make provisions for providing support to enterprises with the objective of preserving jobs, micro, small and cottage enterprises should be provided with support, by finding out some way to reach out to them.
“Public investment can be expanded for a wide range of infrastructure in both rural and urban areas – with particular focus on schemes that can be planned and executed at the local level by engaging people at that level. Priority should be for small-scale schemes that can be identified, designed and implemented quickly – thus creating jobs,” he added.
Fahim Mashroor, founder and chief executive officer at Bdjobs.com told Bangladesh Post that job postings were dropped by 80 percent during the March-April period in 2020 and continued till June-July of the same year.
“Situations improved to a certain extent for job seekers in October as organizations started recruiting again and by December the online job posting rate went back to the pre-pandemic level. The rate further started decreasing since April 2021,” he added.
When asked about which sectors are posting more jobs, he said that advertisement for delivery personnel has increased. All online work based organizations are looking for employees. The posts of content creator and social media marketing manager are in demand.
“The demand in health sector has also increased significantly,” he said.
Rakibul Islam, who was the principal of a local school in Rajshahi, lost his job three months after the coronavirus hit the country.
“The school couldn't afford to pay the salary of the principal anymore,” said the sixty-five-year-old teacher, who started teaching in the local school after retiring from a government college.
Expressing frustration over the situation, he said, “I have been teaching my whole life; I don’t know what else to do now.”
After the prolonged period of crisis when people became hopeful and thought the country was on the recovery trail, the virus returned in a deadlier manner. Along with the virus, returned all the concerns of jobholders and job seekers.
Farha Haque, who worked in a private organization said that she became an entrepreneur after losing her job during the pandemic.
“I started my online business in December. Although things started off well, I have been facing losses for the last two months. I spent all my savings to start this business. I don’t know how I’ll recover from this,” she said.
The situations are worse for fresh graduates who do not have any experiences.
Seeking anonymity, a private university graduate said that he couldn’t pursue his master’s degree and had to quit midway as his parents could not pay his tuition fees anymore.
“I had to start looking for a job after my mother, the only earning member of the family, lost her job. I am looking for employment opportunities at a time when everyone is losing their job. It’s been almost six months, but I still haven’t been able to find a job,” he said.