Unemployment problem in

Bangladesh
Introduction :
Unemployment means the state of being without any work both for the educated and
uneducated for earning one’s livelihood.

Unemployment problem has become a great concern all over the world. But nowhere in
the world this problem is so acute as in Bangladesh. Thousand of people in our country
are without any job.

Cause of unemployment :
Bangladesh, like other developing countries, suffers from large-scale disguised
unemployment in the sense that, even with unchanged techniques of agriculture a large
part of the population engaged in agriculture could be removed without reducing
agricultural output. Beyond agriculture, disguised unemployment is also existing in large
industries, offices and organizations, particularly in the public sector.

Unemployment among the educated youths is one of the major problems in Bangladesh.
The unemployment rate for the population having secondary school certificate level
education and above is significantly higher than those with a lower level of education.
The unemployment rate for educated women is higher compared to that for the male
population.

In Bangladesh salaried/wage employment in the formal sectors is not big enough to take
care of the huge number of unemployed. Employment promotion, especially, creation of
self-employment opportunities, continues as the most important functions of the Bureau
of Manpower Employment and Training. The Fifth Five-Year Plan for 1997-2002 had set
a target of creating additional employment of 6.35 million persons. Of this, a total of
1,60,000 persons are expected to be engaged in self-employment. Emphasis had been
given on training and credit support to women micro entrepreneurs in cottage industries
and other traditional and non-traditional sectors including skill development for service
industries and other non-farm activities. The private sector and NGOs are also playing a
vital role to this end.

Effect of unemployment problem :

The effects of rural-urban migration in Bangladesh are analyzed to identify a relationship
between migration and underdevelopment. Poverty, unemployment and natural hazards
appear to be the main reasons for the rural exodus. The preference for moving to a large
city is found to be determined by the urban bias in planning both by national and
international authorities, and by the public amenities and resources available in the urban
areas. An analysis of the levels and trends in urbanization reveals the notable role of
rural-urban migration in the rapid growth of the urban population. Most migrants are
young, unmarried males of working age. A case study of migrants in Dhaka City
illustrates the reasons for and consequences of migration. It is concluded that rural-urban
migration is mainly a survival strategy of the rural poor.

What is the current situation of unemployment problem in

Bangladesh :
According to a study of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the rate of growth
of unemployment in Bangladesh was 1.9 per cent in the decade of the nineties. But the
growth in unemployment currently is 3.7 per cent. The ILO figures also show Bangladesh
in the twelfth position among the top twenty countries in the world where unemployment
is rising.

The number of the unemployed in Bangladesh now is estimated at 30 million. The way
the rate of unemployment is increasing, it is feared that at this rate unemployment would
soar to some 60 million by 2015. According to another estimate, every year some 2.7
million young persons are becoming eligible for jobs whereas only about 0.7 million of
them are getting employment. The number of the 'disguised unemployed' an economic
term meaning underemployed people or employed to a degree less than their potential, is
some 32 per cent .

Unemployment rate (%)

Bangladesh
Unemployment rate
Year
(%)
1996 35.20
2001 35.00
2002 40.00
2004 40.00

The total civilian labour force of the country in 1996-97 was estimated at 42.97 million,
of which 34.7 million were male and 8.27 million were female. These figures, however
excluded the female labour force engaged in activities like poultry, livestock, paddy
husking, preservation of food etc conducted in rural households and considered as
domestic work rather than economic activities. The 1995-96 LFS estimated the female
participation rate at 18.1%.
The labour force in Bangladesh grew faster than the population and had almost doubled
between the year of independence and mid 1990s. The employment on man-year basis
has, however, increased and the absolute unemployment, as well as underemployment
had reduced. The rate of underemployment was 38.78% in 1972-73 and 27.95% in 1996-
97. Figures on un- and underemployment vary in official documents as may observed
from a comparison between tables 1 and 2.

Since agriculture has not been able to absorb increased labour force there has been large
migration from rural to urban areas. However, agriculture still employs the highest
number of labour (63.2%). Informal labour force dominates the labour market. The
Labour Force Survey, 1995/96 showed that about 40.1% were unpaid family workers.
17.9% were day labour, 12.4% were regularly employed workers and 29.6% were self-
employed.

More than one-third of the employed persons both at the national and rural levels is
underemployed. The underemployment is much higher in the female population than in
the male population. Of the unpaid family workers 77.9% are female.

Table 1 Labour Force, Employment and Unemployment During 1972 to 1997 (million
person-years)

Labour Force Employment Unemployment

Year Unemployment
Domestic Foreign Total Rate (%)
1972/73 21.38 13.09 --- 13.09 8.29 38.78

1977/78 24.10 16.04 0.05 16.09 8.01 33.24

1979/80 25.29 16.09 0.05 16.14 9.15 36.18

1984/85 29.50 18.97 0.32 19.29 10.21 34.61

1989/90 34.80 22.82 0.43 23.25 11.55 33.19

1994/95 40.47 26.88 0.95 27.83 12.64 31.23

1995/96 41.47 28.18 1.14 29.32 12.38 29.69

1996/97 42.97 29.62 1.34 30.96 12.01 27.95

Source The Fifth Five Year Plan for 1997 - 2002

Table 2 Under-employed person aged 10 years and over in 1995-96 (million)

Category
Bangladesh Urban Rural
BS M F BS M F BS M F
Employed
54.6 33.8 20.8 9.7 1.9 19.6 44.8 17.0 37.9
Person*
Employed
Person (<35 18.9 4.2 14.7 7.0 0.7 10.0 26.7 3.5 13.1
hrs/week)
Unemployment
34.6 12.4 70.7 2.7 1.2 44.4 18.1 13.5 74.6
Rate**

(BS=Both Sex, M=Male, F=Female)

Source BBS, Labour Force Survey 1995-96.

Notes * one who was either working one or more hours for pay or profit or working
without pay in a family farm or enterprise or organisation during the reference period or
found not working but had a job or business from which he/she was temporarily absent
during the reference period.
Number of persons who worked less than 35 hours per week as percentage of the total
number of employed population.

Statistics :
How to prevent unemployment problem in Bangladesh :
Government will need to act imaginatively and effectively in relation to each of the above
factors and more to improve the investment climate that in turn would accelerate
economic activities and make the desired impact on the unemployment situation.
However, there is also a need to be clear about the policies to be pursued to create
employment. New enterprises will absorb the unemployed. But capital intensive
enterprises will employ a smaller number than labour intensive ones which will
understandably employ a greater number. Thus, enterprise with labour intensive character
should be identified and encouraged.

Government can make a big contribution towards reducing unemployment by also

building and operating a large number of training institutions to train the jobless ones in
different vocations for them to be fit enough to take up employment in the country, to go
abroad for doing jobs or to engage in self-employment. Government's ample spending for
skill development is all the more necessary because private sectors may prefer not to
invest in this area out of a consideration of low profits. The high costs of skill training
under the private sector is also likely to exclude most seekers of such training on the
ground of their inability to pay for the training. Thus, government's role as a skill trainer
is very important. But government can expect to recover the investments it will make in
this area by receiving regular payments in instalments from people who would get jobs
after such training.

Conclusion :

Unemployment is a great curse to a nation. We can not expect the development of our
country leaving its millions of the people unemployment to survive as a boastful nation.
We should make all out efforts to get rid of this curse.