Unemployment rate of young university graduates is four times higher than that of the young persons with primary level education (26.1 per cent and 6.0 per cent respectively), a study revealed Thursday.
The study also said of 38 per cent of the employed youth population, 31.7 per cent are self-employed and 11.1 per cent are unpaid family workers representing the vulnerable category comprised of 42.8 per cent of employed youths. Informal employment is nearly universal among youths, touching 95.1 per cent of all young workers.
Nearly three-fourth or 61.6 per cent are undereducated for the job they do while 59.5 per cent of young workers work for excessive hours that is more than 48 hours per week, the study added.
The overall youth unemployment rate in Bangladesh is 10.3 per cent with young women facing the greatest challenges in finding work.
These were revealed at a national workshop on 'Labour Market Transition for Young Women and Men in Bangladesh' at Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in the city. BBS in collaboration with International Labour Organisation (ILO) organised the workshop where the draft report on 'Labour Market Transition for Young Women and Men in Bangladesh: Main Findings and Policy Implications' were presented by National Expert of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Kazi Ali Towfique.
Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) secretary Md Nojibur Rahman was present as the chief guest at the inaugural session of the workshop while ILO chief technical adviser of W4Y Project Sara Elder and joint secretary of labour ministry Khondaker Mostan Hossain were present as the special guests with BBS acting director general Amin Bhuiyan in the chair. BIDS director general Mustafa K Mujeri chaired the technical session.
According to the data of BBS, the total youth population in the country was more than 30 million in 1990 which rose to more than 44 million in 2010 and will reach 45.64 million in 2015 and 46.37 million by 2020.
The female youth unemployment rate is 22.9 per cent, nearly four times higher than the male rate of 6.2 per cent. The rate is 26.1 per cent among young university graduates.
Though unemployment rate is low compared to the global level and higher than the regional average, underutilization of labour is very high in the country, the survey added.
The draft report shows 37.6 per cent of youths are neither in the labour force nor in education (this group of inactive non-students consists mainly of female youth), 20.1 per cent of young people are confined to irregular employment and 4.6 per cent of youths are unemployed (relaxed). The three groups together total a rate of underutilized labour of 62.3 per cent.
The remaining 19.9 per cent are in school and 17.9 per cent are engaged in regular jobs
Mustafa K Mujeri told the FE that youth unemployment is increasingly becoming a crisis in Bangladesh. A comprehensive policy has to be adopted by the government to address the problem by making employment generation a central issue for the development process, he said.
He said youth population is the most productive element of the labour force whose productivity should be exploited at an optimum level.
Sara Elder said nearly two-thirds of young males are working (64.3 per cent) against the 14.9 per cent young female. Among the employed five in 10 are in irregular employment and more than nine in 10 are working informally. Only 27 per cent of young workers are engaged on a written contract.
She stressed on strengthening of the existing efforts to regularise informal businesses through awareness raising, business development services, self employment grants and credit lines and labour inspection, putting in place a system of incentives to invest in the improvement working conditions of young people and enforcement of labour laws and collective agreements.
Citing example of the Arab Spring, chief guest Nojibur Rahman said the countries which did not pay attention to the youth population have paid the price.
The report said female youths are in more disadvantageous position as 62.5 per cent of them are inactive non-students compared to only 9.0 per cent of young males. Responsibility towards family and domestic chores has been cited as the main reasons behind inactivity for young women (71.0 per cent).
The country's youth unemployment was slightly below the global average of 12.4 per cent in 2012 (ILO 2013) and higher than the regional average youth unemployment rate for South Asia 9.4 per cent in 2012.
According to Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2010, the unemployment rate among the country's youth population aged between 15-29 years was 7.5 per cent higher compared to the national average of 4.5 per cent.
The School-To-Work Survey (SWTS) 2013 was implemented by the BBS with the financial and technical support from ILO in partnership with The Master Card Foundation.
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