Tackling rising unemployment, job insecurity

The combined impact of high inflation and stagnation in the private sector growth, both in industry and service, have drastically reduced employment opportunities for the educated and skilled segment of the workforce, said the World Bank (WB) in its recent development updates for Bangladesh as well as local experts including market analysts. Earlier, the informal sector was the preserve of the unskilled and semi-skilled workforce of the country. Unfortunately, the employment landscape is changing with members of the experienced and skilled workforce being forced to take pot luck and accept very low-paid jobs or engage in small-scale trading in the informal sector just for their survival. Such wastage of qualified professional workforce is not only negatively affecting the economy's growth potential, but also increasing frustration in society, a development the government will be required to address carefully. In this context, one would do well to recall that the recent student-mass upheaval that resulted in the fall of the immediate past regime was the work of the disgruntled youths who were initially demanding that government jobs should be accessible to the qualified candidates without being encumbered by discriminatory provisions like quotas. So, it is not hard to imagine what a potential time bomb the rising number of disaffected educated youths can be for the stability of society.

The data provided by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) for the decade between 2013-14 and 2022-23 show that average wage rate during that period registered a growth by 6.26 per cent. But that wage increase was offset by a higher rate of rise in inflation by more than 7.0 per cent to the dismay of both the unemployed and employed workers and the common people. But it is not only the loss of real income that is the only issue of concern. The employees of the private sector industries are also facing both job and wage cuts. The worse off among them are the high-salaried professionals as their employers often offload them to reduce what they term the operational cost of their business. Obviously, this has created an atmosphere of job insecurity among those still in employment in the private sector industries thereby affecting their productivity severely. Reports have it that the business houses, especially those that saw unprecedented growth, thanks to the official patronage and largesse they were blessed with during the past regime, have come under the watch of the present interim government. But that is also sending shivers down the spine of the employees of those business houses as they might ultimately lose their jobs as result. That would require the government to tread warily on this matter so that business houses may not use the government move as an excuse for shedding jobs from their organisations. That means alongside the jobless and ill-paid workers, the well-paid ones are also facing the double whammy of income loss and job insecurity.

And this state of affairs is part of a challenging macro-fiscal context for Bangladesh where both global and domestic factors are at play, recent WB updates for Bangladesh pointed out. And those would require matching and timely reforms to bolster the nation's economic and institutional resilience. While the reform work to restructure the overall state of the economy is in motion, the government cannot also lose sight of the immediate tasks of enhancing the business's confidence by improving the law and order situation as well as coming up with appropriate incentives to promote investment.

The urgent tasks before the interim government, therefore, include easing the rising level of resentment and insecurity among the workers and employers alike.