Disconcerting employment scene

The BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) finding on the number of unemployed people going up by 0.1 million in the last fiscal year (FY), 2016-17, over the previous one, is quite disconcerting. The disconcertment goes even deeper since the country recorded the highest ever economic growth rate --7.28 per cent, according to the BBS estimate --during that fiscal. Thus, the rise in unemployment has again brought to the fore the qualitative aspect of the country's economic growth process. Worries involving the deceleration in employment generation in recent years have been there. The rise in the rate of unemployment, however, confirms the slower growth of employment opportunities.

Many might consider the BBS estimate of unemployed people --an able person who does not work even for an hour in a week is considered unemployed --at 2.7 million in the last fiscal or at 2.6 million in the previous three years, unrealistic. The presence of so many unemployed people, both educated and uneducated, invariably all around would lead them to draw such a conclusion. There is no denying that the country's economy has been growing at a decent pace for more than two and a half decades and more and more people are gradually coming out of the poverty trap. However, nearly one-third of the population does still live below the poverty line. The BBS data on unemployment is not consistent with that of the unemployment rate -- at only 4.2 per cent.

Every year a sizeable number of people do enter the labour market. But the number of new jobs created both in the public and private sectors has been highly inadequate to absorb them. The rate of unemployment among the educated youth is also very high as colleges and universities have been regularly churning out graduates in a very difficult job market. The problem of unemployment concerning the educated youths does however largely originate from a highly ill-planned system of education. But a growing sense of utter frustration among the victims of the system is now very much evident. The demonstrations by them in support of the demand for raising the age-limit for government jobs and for doing away with reserve quotas for some sections of job seekers are manifestations of a restive situation. The sooner the government reads it the better for all.

The slow growth of jobs in the overall economy does point to weaknesses in the government's policies on its own investment and development works and also on the private sector which remains to be the main engine of economic growth. The private investment has remained more or less stagnant in recent years. However, the situation has lately improved to some extent. But what counts most is the quality of investment and whether investment is being made in productive and labour-intensive areas.

In the absence of employment opportunities, millions of people are now managing their existence through self-employment, small-trading being at the forefront of such efforts. It is natural that people would try to do something to eke out a living. But the fact remains that many people even do not have a small amount of capital to try that. The situation demands special efforts and policy support for enough job creation. Facilitating generation of sufficient employment opportunities is one of the key responsibilities of the governments all over the world. Since the growth of employment has decelerated here, the government should make serious and conscious efforts to help reverse the situation.