Bangladesh has been facing significant changes in its demographic structure. The country is at the stage where it can start utilising demographic dividend that will last around the year 2040, as per economists. The demographic dividend is referred to the potential economic benefit offered by changes in the age structure of the population. Bangladesh is also going through the demographic transition, and is experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime demographic dividend. As per population census 2011, 18.8% population belong to age group 15-24 years and 37.6% belong to age group 25-54 years which means, after 15 years, most of our population will be in the workforce. The median age current stands at 24.7 years. By 2050, there will be more working age population than ever in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh surely can take advantage from the transition. But there still remain some challenges related to the seemingly favorable demographics. Though the total working age population and the total labor force each increased annually, most of the increase is in the informal sector due to relatively limited number of jobs created in the formal sector. The employment structure of Bangladesh is characterized by the predominance of the low-productivity, low-wage, informal sector which is insufficient to poverty reduction. According to a report by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate has decreased from 2009 to 2014. But that does not give a clear picture of employment scenario of this country. Bangladesh is expected to have 78 million workers by 2025, up from 56.7 million in 2010, of whom two thirds have only minimal education and 4% have received any kind of training as a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggests.
In Bangladesh agriculture continues to operate at low productivity, though employing around one-half of the country's labor force, while contributing only around one-fifth to the GDP whereas high productivity financial, information and communication and engineering services employ only a tiny share of the labour force.
Bangladesh's share of employment in industry is below that of most other Asian developing economies. Its share of value added in industry has not kept pace with its share of employment. Moreover, female participation in economic activities have been hindered by the discriminatory aspects of women's employment conditions and wages. Manufacturing and trade are largely concentrated in one or two sectors with high vulnerability in the global market. To spur economic growth the industrial sector requires diversification. Now we need to expedite the improvement process in the indicators such as the doctor to patient ratio, the number of nurses and midwives in the health sectors. For every sector, we need more developed human resource. Human capital development will be the key ingredient for our country at this point. Only the properly educated and trained human resource in all sectors can bring sustainable employment and exhibit productivity during the peak period of demographic transition.
The writer is a student of MSS in Population Sciences, University of Dhaka, [email protected]
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