Unemployment increased in the last quarter to December 2023 over its corresponding period a year before for, economists say, major factors like high inflation, lax investment and election jitters.
And the jobless rate was especially pushed up by higher female unemployed population, according to findings in a latest survey by the national statistical agency.
The jobless rate was found 3.20 per cent in the quarter over 3.15 per cent in the same period a year earlier, the survey by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics or BBS shows.
But in terms of number, the unemployed population counted 2.31 million in the October-December 2023 quarter. It was 2.35 million in October-December 2022, the survey report shows.
The female unemployment rate was recorded at 3.06 per cent, up by 0.52 percentage point from its corresponding period a year earlier.
Economists view that the economy has been passing through uncertainties in recent months. It's, maybe, due to elections and higher inflation, forcing many entrepreneurs to halt employment.
Dr Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank, told the FE that higher inflation is the key reason and investment opportunity also was missing due to uncertainty stemming from political and economic factors.
"The economy has been passing through uncertainty for more than one year and this should have been reflected in the employments," says Dr Hussain.
He notes that the employers are having a "wait-and-see" approach due to the factors.
Dr M Masrur Reaz, chairman and CEO of Policy Exchange of Bangladesh, says there are many challenges facing the economy for more than one and a half years which impacted the dynamism of the economy.
"The concretionary monetary policy being pursued by the central bank is also impacting employment as it is helping decrease in the demand side," he told the FE writer.
Higher inflation in the economy has been leading to lower consumption."Such lower spending by end-consumers is also impacting the overall employment situation," says Dr Masrur.
He said the supply side is being impacted following import compressions.
In the meantime, the number of female unemployed was 0.78 million, up by 18.2 per cent from its corresponding period a year back, the report shows.
On the other hand, the male unemployed population was recorded at 1.57 million, down by nearly 5.0 per cent from that its previous quarter in 2022.
An unemployed as defined by the ILO is a person aged 15 or over who simultaneously meets three conditions: being unemployed for a given week; being available to take a job within two weeks; and having actively sought a job in the last four weeks.
The latest labour-force survey shows that the total labour force was 73.46-million strong at the end of December last. Of it, 48.01 million was male labour force while the rest of 25.45 million female labour force.
Of the labour force, 71.11 million people were employed as of the October-December period, leaving 2.35 million unemployed, the survey shows.
The male labour force was 46.44 million in the quarter while 24.67 were females.
Farm payroll employment belongs to the biggest share of total employment as they are nearly 45 per cent, nonfarm in industrial employed population was at 17 per cent and approximately 38 per cent was in the service sector, the quarterly shows.
The survey shows that the size of the population not in the workforce has increased more than 3.3 per cent to 47.36 million. These are pensioners, students, and people who are unwilling or unable to join the labour force.
Bangladesh has about 61-percent labour-force participation dominated by males who account for nearly 81 per cent of total labour-force participation.
Bangladesh's population is now estimated at 172.11 million, of which 120.36 million are eligible to participate in the labor force. But a significant portion of the population is inactive or 47.36 million are not in labour force as they are students, physically challenged, or elderly people.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
