Creating jobs for swelling ranks of the unemployed
Monday, 11 August 2008
Attaining a comfortable rate of economic growth and creation of jobs for the unemployed and the underemployed constitute the primary objectives of any well-meaning government. But for generating more employment opportunities, the country must also create the condition for an enhanced level of investment in the economy from both the domestic and overseas sources. But what is the real picture of Bangladesh on this particular front? How many people are unemployed and underemployed at the moment and how is the economy performing to create adequate scope for job opportunities for them? And the number of the unemployed is also not remaining at the same level with the passing of every year, since fresh millions of young people are coming of age and joining the ranks of the unemployed.
According a study of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), so far as the rising rate of unemployment is concerned, Bangladesh is placed in the 12th place among all such 20 countries in the world. To have an idea on the unemployment situation in the economy, one does not really need to undertake a costly research. For Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries on earth having more people than it can accommodate within a very small space of hardly 54 thousand square miles. Its industrial infrastructure is not strong and its agriculture, which is still largely run in a primitive fashion by impoverished peasants using their Neolithic implements, is already stretched to its limit. What is worse, 25 per cent of Bangladesh's 146 million-strong population are still lying below the poverty line.
Understandably, this is a huge task before the government and all other stakeholders in the economy to face this formidable challenge of generating enough jobs to absorb the rising number of unemployed in the country. According to a planning ministry source, at present the labour force is growing at 3.32 per cent. At this rate by the fiscal year, FY, 2011, its total size will stand at 58.28 million. So, between FY2009 and FY2011, the number of labours will increase by 5.44 million. However, the draft of the second poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) of the government says that the government will have to create 7.32 million new jobs within the next three years to absorb its increasing labour force. The planning ministry, which is preparing the second PRSP to be finalised this month, has projected that the number of employment opportunities (assuming the current level of growth to continue) to be created during this period will be around 55.75 million. This in other words means that to absorb all the unemployed to be created in this period until FY2011, the economy will be required to ensure an employment growth rate at a 4.67 per cent.
But how is the economy going to achieve the feat? The economic growth, assuming a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 7.0 per cent in this period, will hopefully ensure that the economy will be able to provide jobs for all the unemployed and underemployed to be created in this period. But there is still a catch here. In fact, GDP growth, however good its rate may appear on the face of it, does not automatically translate into creation of jobs for all.
The only guarantee that a comfortable level of GDP growth will also assure a reasonable distribution of the economic benefits in society, it has to be pro-poor. So, to avoid the prospect that the growth, if any, may not bypass the poor, the draft of the second PRSP envisages production policies to ensure pro-poor, employment-friendly growth. The steps might include launching of special schemes using micro-credit, encouraging overseas migration of job-seekers, introducing safety-net programme for the vulnerable groups and so on.
According a study of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), so far as the rising rate of unemployment is concerned, Bangladesh is placed in the 12th place among all such 20 countries in the world. To have an idea on the unemployment situation in the economy, one does not really need to undertake a costly research. For Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries on earth having more people than it can accommodate within a very small space of hardly 54 thousand square miles. Its industrial infrastructure is not strong and its agriculture, which is still largely run in a primitive fashion by impoverished peasants using their Neolithic implements, is already stretched to its limit. What is worse, 25 per cent of Bangladesh's 146 million-strong population are still lying below the poverty line.
Understandably, this is a huge task before the government and all other stakeholders in the economy to face this formidable challenge of generating enough jobs to absorb the rising number of unemployed in the country. According to a planning ministry source, at present the labour force is growing at 3.32 per cent. At this rate by the fiscal year, FY, 2011, its total size will stand at 58.28 million. So, between FY2009 and FY2011, the number of labours will increase by 5.44 million. However, the draft of the second poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) of the government says that the government will have to create 7.32 million new jobs within the next three years to absorb its increasing labour force. The planning ministry, which is preparing the second PRSP to be finalised this month, has projected that the number of employment opportunities (assuming the current level of growth to continue) to be created during this period will be around 55.75 million. This in other words means that to absorb all the unemployed to be created in this period until FY2011, the economy will be required to ensure an employment growth rate at a 4.67 per cent.
But how is the economy going to achieve the feat? The economic growth, assuming a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 7.0 per cent in this period, will hopefully ensure that the economy will be able to provide jobs for all the unemployed and underemployed to be created in this period. But there is still a catch here. In fact, GDP growth, however good its rate may appear on the face of it, does not automatically translate into creation of jobs for all.
The only guarantee that a comfortable level of GDP growth will also assure a reasonable distribution of the economic benefits in society, it has to be pro-poor. So, to avoid the prospect that the growth, if any, may not bypass the poor, the draft of the second PRSP envisages production policies to ensure pro-poor, employment-friendly growth. The steps might include launching of special schemes using micro-credit, encouraging overseas migration of job-seekers, introducing safety-net programme for the vulnerable groups and so on.