The ongoing confrontational politics has almost paralysed the economy, taking a heavy toll on employment generation, sector insiders said.
They also said the country's average employment dropped by at least 35 per cent in last one and half months comparing with the previous months.
Employment witnessed a negative growth in the recent months following the political chaos among the major parties that started from December 2014, resulting in recurrent spells of shutdown, non-stop blockade and uncertainty.
The volatile situation refrained employers from hiring people, and even forced them to fire employees. The job generation growth dipped mainly in service, manufacturing, engineering and agriculture sectors, they also said.
Sectors like transportation, food processing, tourism, medicare, real estate, media, garments, jute, ceramics, furniture, leather, light engineering and still etc witnessed a substantial loss due to the offensive politics, they added.
"The calendar year 2014 was a revival year for the job market, as recruitment increased by more than 30 per cent comparing to that of 2013," said Bangladesh Employers' Federation director Md Monsur Ahmed.
"But the signs of 2015 are indicating towards a worse year than 2013, when recruitment declined by 25 per cent following political upheaval. Fresh graduates, diploma holders and skilled workers are very frustrated in this situation."
After the Rana Plaza tragedy, joint initiatives of the private sector and the government helped revive the country's reputation, as most of the exporting RMG factories came under compliance, he said.
"We worked hard to get back our reputation, but the prevailing war-like political situation is eroding the achievements," he added.
Md Shahidul Azim, vice president of Bangladesh Garments Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said RMG sector has emerged as the country's biggest job-generating sector, as it recruits nearly 41,500 people per month.
He said RMG units, especially the medium-scale ones, are not in a position now for fresh vacancy announcement, as the number of export orders has declined significantly following the political upheaval.
Export to traditional markets is declining, while their moves to explore new markets are being hampered amid the situation. As a result, employment dropped by more than 40 percent in the sector in the recent months, he concluded.
Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer (CEO) of the country's largest job portal BDJobs.com, told the FE that his portal witnessed 10 per cent negative growth in January 2015 compared to the previous month.
He said the job portal got at least 6,000 advertisements a month. But the confrontational politics is depriving fresh graduates from getting jobs.
Sheikh Nasir Uddin, chairman of Akiz Group, a leading conglomerate, told the FE that vandalism and arson attacks are discouraging foreign buyers from investing in Bangladesh and diverting them to other competitive countries.
Mr Nasir, also chairman of Akiz Jute Mills, said buyers of Bangladeshi jute yarn from Turkey, Egypt and other fixed destinations are canceling their trips following the war-like condition here.
He said fresh recruitment is almost halted in jute sector, while many of the workers cannot come to their respective mills in district-levels due to the blockade-hartal, which caused a 30 per cent decline in production.
Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association president Md Sohel Talukder said new recruitment in transport sector has stopped. Many companies are forced to cut manpower to coupe with losses, as the sector is the worst affected in the political turmoil.
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, additional director (research) of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said the overall economy is suffering from the political suffocation.
He also said: "Demand, production and supply, the three key factors of economy, are affected by the present volatile situation. Squeeze in production means decline in employment."
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, 111 universities, including 34 public and 77 private, produce about 8,48,000 graduates for entering the job market each year.
Apart from the graduates, another 1.3 million people also hunt for jobs in the country, according to the ministry of labour and employment.
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