50pc fall in private sector employment

Recruitment, mainly in the country's private sector, has dropped sharply in recent times due to prevailing political turmoil, sector insiders said.
According to them, most of the manufacturers and entrepreneurs have almost put on hold their fresh investment and expansion plans following unstable political situation.
The Board of Investment (BoI) data, however, revealed that overall employment fell by over 50 per cent during the January-November period of 2013 compared to that of the corresponding period of last year.
 "Recruitments in the country's production and services sectors during the first half of the current financial year dropped significantly mainly because of the on-going volatile political situation," former president of Bangladesh Employers' Federation (BEF) Fazlul Hoque told the FE.
 "Being a fast developing country, we see an annual growth of around 15 to 20 per cent in employment sector but in the last couple of months, the scenario changed," he added.
Mr Hoque, also managing director of the Plummy Fashions Limited, said readymade garments (RMG), construction, engineering and service sectors are the main drivers of recruitment but now these sectors are passing a critical time.
He said the country's RMG industry is a large sector and recruits more then 0.5 million on an average every year.
Due to political turmoil not only RMG industry but also all other manufacturing units have shelved off plans for new recruitments, he added.
Mr Fahim Mashroor founded Bdjobs.com (the online employment exchange in Bangladesh) told the FE, "In last one year, the new employee recruitment saw a downtrend due to unstable political situation".
He said in recent times, most of manufacturing units could not utilise hundred per cent capacity and therefore could not recruit any new workforce.
Mr Mashroor said in recent times, recruitments in major sectors including real estate, textile, RMG, banking and consumer marketing have declined by more than 60 per cent.
Toufiq M Seraj, managing director of Sheltech, a leading real estate company, told the FE, the real estate sector did not have any new recruitment due to their sluggish business because of political instability.
He informed that in 2006, about 5,684 flats were built by the real estate companies and in 2010-12 the number went up to 25,000. But the figure began to come down for lack of political stability and recent economic recession.
Mr Seraj said, "At present, there are about 20,000 flats worth about Tk 140 billion ready for sale and construction works of over 8,000 flats remain suspended due to the turmoil. As a result, there has been no recruitment of employees in the sector.
He said the realtors along with customers who bought flats with bank loans owe more than Tk 180 billion to banks.
According to the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB), the real estate sector provides employment to 3.5 million people. The present turnover of this sector is about Tk 280 billion a year.
President of the Exporters' Association of Bangladesh (EAB) Abdus Salam Murshedy told the FE in recent times new investments dropped drastically in RMG sector leaving no room for fresh recruitment.
He said in the current political turmoil, export orders for RMG dropped by more than 40 per cent in last six months.
Vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Shahidullah Azim told the FE that new wage hike from this December has raised production cost. That is why new employee recruitment has fallen sharply.
He said the country's apparel makers have almost halted recruiting workers as the sector is passing through a grave crisis owing to frequent political unrest and implementation of new wage structure.
According to the BGMEA, more than 4.4 million workers are employed in the country's RMG sector and around 80 per cent is women especially from the rural areas.