Unemployment 1

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 Year

Unemployment rate (%)

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 199697. 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 selfemployed.

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) Year

Domestic

Employment Foreign

Total

Labour Force

Unemployment

Unemployment 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 Employed Person* Employed Person (<35 hrs/week) Unemployment Rate**

Bangladesh

Urban

Rural

BS

M

F

BS

M

F

BS

M

F

54.6

33.8

20.8

9.7

1.9

19.6

44.8

17.0

37.9

18.9

4.2

14.7

7.0

0.7

10.0

26.7

3.5

13.1

34.6

12.4

70.7

2.7

1.2

44.4

18.1

13.5

74.6

(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.