Unemployment hits this Muslim country: 1 in 3 graduates jobless for up to 2 years – not Pakistan, Iran, or Afghanistan, but…

Dhaka: Bangladesh, which is dealing with political unrest following the massive student protest that forced the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country and take exile in India(BHARAT), and claimed over 1400 lives, is dealing with a major unemployment problem. According to a report from the Labour Force Survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), one-third of university graduates remained jobless for up to two years while looking for work in 2024.

What Does Labour Force Survey Report Of Bangladesh Say?

The Labour Force Survey report revealed that there were 26.24 lakh youths were unemployed last year, including 8.85 lakh university graduates.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics stated that nearly 36 percent of unemployed youth are dependent mainly on their relatives or friends in order to assist them in finding a job, while 26 percent of job seekers applied for jobs via advertisements.

As per the data, 12 percent applied in person, 9 percent sent applications directly, 5.5 percent applied after seeing ads, and 3.5 percent tried walk-in interviews.

Rizwanul Islam, former special adviser for the Employment Sector at the International Labour Office in Geneva termed the major issue as long-term unemployment.

“This is called long-term unemployment. Even after six months, it becomes a matter of concern,” he said.

“This is a clear waste of talent and assets. In terms of education, training, and society, what we call ‘misallocation of resources’ or ‘underutilisation of skills’ is a much more serious problem in the long term,” he said.

Islam also highlighted the lack of formal mechanisms in society.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Bangladesh is battling major unemployment alongside political unrest.
• One-third of university graduates are jobless for up to two years in last year.
• The Labour Force Survey revealed that 36% of unemployed youth depend on relatives or friends for jobs, others tried ads, direct applications, in-person visits, walk-in interviews.
• Experts warned of long-term unemployment, calling it a waste of talent.
• Researchers highlighted poor education quality, limited investment, and stagnant private-sector growth as key reasons.

What Did The Expert Say About Bangladesh’s Unemployment Problem?

According to Badrun Nessa Ahmed, senior research fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), poor quality of education and a lack of trained teachers and professors are also a major reason behind the unemployment in Bangladesh.

“For graduates, quality matters a lot, and quality really makes a difference,” she said.

The study revealed that 28 percent of graduate students don’t get job and remained unemployed.

Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), commented on the unemployment issue facing graduates, stating, “This highlights a difficult truth about our economy.”

She said that the government doesn’t has an adequate investment for job creation in Bangladesh’s economy.

It is noteworthy that the private sectors play a crucial role in creating employment in any country. But that has been stagnant for around a decade in Bangladesh.

“More recently investment has been decreasing even further, and most private-sector investment is foreign in nature. As a result opportunities for job creation are extremely limited,” said Fahmida.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), an individual is considered unemployed if he/she did not has work during the prior week, even for a brief period, or were temporarily away from their job. Additionally, the person must be currently available for work or have actively searched for employment or attempted to establish a business or farm within the last four weeks.