THE COUNTRY’S unemployment situation has deteriorated since 2010 as a consequence of the economy suffering from investment unavailability, opined knowledgeable economists. A report carried in this newspaper on Friday said that the economy of Bangladesh remained stagnant and it is not expanding in line with the Sixth Five-Year Plan, which targets a higher economic growth of over 7.0 percent per annum. The GDP growth remained stagnant at 6.0 percent for the last five years and the main cause of the sluggish growth is a lack of investment. As the present economic growth rate is not supportive to absorb the additional unemployment population, the number of jobseekers is soaring by leaps and bounds. Country’s current manpower is 5 crore and 67 lakh, according to the latest manpower survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). 5 crore and 41 lakh people are working among them. That means only 26 lakh people are unemployed. However, the survey says, 1 crore 11 lakh people work in family-run businesses but did not receive any wages. That is such work engagement is not a remunerative one.
The unemployment rate is 14.2 percent though the government showed a lower rate, according to World Bank. 18 lakh people are being added every year on the job market. So there is a pressure on the economy to create new job placements. The growth rate may rise to 8 percent if the employment rate of Bangladesh can be increased by 2 percent more, World Bank said. And then the country can enter the middle-income level country rank by 2021.
Therefore, we are apprehensive of an awful situation in the job market that may increase social anarchy in the near future due to an absence of any significant government plans. Though investment crunch is primarily blamed for this stagnant condition, it needs to be considered in a more comprehensive light. Unemployment itself is a sign of stagnancy (of the economy) meaning that the overall economy of the country is in crisis. Infrastructure inadequacy has increased as a result of political uncertainty and a decline in the law and order situation of the country. There has been an acute shortage of capital i.e. no investment is coming forth. There is less money available for private investors from the formal lending sources (banks) as the government is borrowing extensively .
Here, we would like to share the experts’ view that the government should divert investment to the productive sectors like labour intensive export industries and SMEs. Steps should be taken to create easy access to finance to the SMEs, the sector with the most potential for creating employment opportunities. The government should have a plan to create a technical and market-oriented workforce to feed the industries to reduce dependency on foreign experts. Only with the growth of the domestic economy, the unemployment situation can be reversed meaningfully.
