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Prospects for job creation gloomy
FROM PAGE 12
opportunities across the country.
It has established the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar Mirsharai, an upazila in Chattogram, with a plan to create employment for about 5 lakh people. But the process is still ongoing and investors are yet to start operation of their mills and factories there.
In his budget speech last year, the finance minister promised to launch initiatives for the growth of micro, cottage, small and medium enterprises for job creation, but many of such initiatives are struggling to stay afloat amid the ongoing economic volatility.
The Department of Employment has been created for the purpose of generating new employment and creating a central database on employment, education and training.
Besides, the ongoing trend of providing skills development training through the Department of Youth Development will continue. This includes micro-credit-based self-employment programmes for the youth, said Kamal in his budget speech on Thursday.
Employment opportunities for 20 lakh people have been created in IT freelancing, the software and hardware industry, business processing outsourcing, e-commerce, ride-sharing, fintech, education technology, and internet services sectors. The number of these people will be increased to 30 lakh by 2025, he said.
The government has provided training to 6 lakh people in the past seven years under the Skills for Employment Investment Programme. Of them, 423,000 are employed in different areas, with 35 percent being women.
Sayema Haque Bidisha, a professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka, said although the government committed to implementing some programmes on job creation last year, the plans have not come to fruition.
“For instance, many of the economic zones are yet to be developed,” she said.
Still, the total number of unemployed people declined from 27 lakh in 2017 to 26.3 lakh in 2022, according to data from the Labour Force Survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. This brings the unemployment rate to 3.6 percent, says the survey.
According to the estimate of the International Labour Organisation, Bangladesh’s unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in 2021.
Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute, thinks the underemployment rate is about 25 percent as many people have lost jobs in the past couple of years owing to the economic crisis.
“The unemployment rate of the BBS may be right in its own standard.”
He said employment is a result of investments but this year will be different for the employment sector owing to declining foreign direct investments, the fall in credit rating of Bangladesh, the persisting energy and power problem, and a higher bank borrowing by the government.
Mansur suggested retention of jobs in 2023-24.
Kamal has set a deficit financing target of Tk 261,785 crore for FY24. Of the amount, Tk 132,395 crore will come from the banking system.
“This might slow the flow of funds to the private sector,” said Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling.
“Under such a situation, the creation of new jobs is difficult,” he added.
Md Saiful Islam, president of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, thinks the creation of new jobs depends on private sector investment and the growth in export.
“Achieving the targeted employment is quite challenging,” he said.
Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, chairman of the Department of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka, said employment is not being generated at an expected level as investment is not taking place.
Rizwanul Islam, a former special adviser for the employment sector at the International Labour Office in Geneva, said the number of workers was supposed to increase in the manufacturing sector but their number is declining.
The number of workers in the agricultural sector is growing, he said, adding that the creation of decent jobs is a challenge.
More than 85 percent of the country’s total workforce is engaged in the informal sector, meaning the country faces an uphill battle in ensuring a safe workplace for them and protecting their rights.
Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that amid the current export trend of garment items, retaining existing workers and generating new jobs is quite difficult.
BGMEA members account for 85 percent of the country’s national exports.
In April, garment exports fell 15.4 percent year-on-year to $3.32 billion. The shipment, however, rose 9 percent to $38.57 billion in the July-April period of the current fiscal year.
Bangladesh’s overall export receipts grew 5.38 percent to $45.67 billion in the first 10 months of the outgoing fiscal year.