By the numbers
Woes of unemployment
THE lead report carried by The Daily Star on February 22, based on the draft Labour Force Survey (LFS) report 2005-06 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), is really a matter of major concern for the nation. According to the report, the growth rate of employment has shrunk by 50 percent while unemployment rose by 50 percent since 2003. Total paid employment declined from 16 million in 1999-2000 to 15 million in 2002-03 and 15.2 million in 2005-06.
The LFS found a decline in female employment in the manufacturing sector and negative male employment growth in the construction sector. The economic dependency ratio, which is measured by inactive people depending on those economically active, was higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
The survey reveals that annual employment growth was 2.2 percent during 2003-2006, compared to 4.4 percent in 2000-2003. But the unemployment rate increased from 16.6 percent in 2000 to 24.5 percent in 2006.
More than two million people, who constitute 4.3 percent of the labour force, were unemployed, according to the LFS 2002-03. The survey also said that over 15 million people, or 34.2 percent of the labour force, were underemployed with limited working opportunities. Absolute unemployment increased in all these years because of the government's inability to generate new jobs.
Frequent policy shifts, prompted by intervention of multilateral lending agencies such as the World Bank and IMF, retarded growth of employment. Successive governments also failed to sort out employment related issues in the long-term perspective.
Trade liberalisation has had a negative impact on employment scenario. A joint study carried by CPD and the ILO examined the changes of employment in pursuance of trade liberalisation in the country and found that employment in general suffered during the second phase of trade liberalisation. There has been significant trade liberalisation in Bangladesh during the 1990s and its impact on employment was not always positive.
Bangladesh, a country where industrial investment is wretchedly stagnant and expansion in the agricultural and service sectors is simply not able to cope with the ever-increasing pressure of unemployment, very badly needs to find employment opportunities abroad for its unskilled and semi-skilled labourers. But it is not doing enough to expand its employment market.
For nearly three decades now, the oil-rich Middle East countries relied heavily on the cheap and unskilled immigrant labourers from Bangladesh. Apart from the Middle East, unskilled and semi-skilled labourers from Bangladesh are spread over many countries in Asia and Europe. They are generally engaged in various hazardous occupations like construction, cleaning and security work.
Bangladeshis who seek manual jobs abroad are commonly poor and uneducated. For just being able to afford two meals for their families, they opt for any sort of job abroad by selling off their last plots of land to meet the high demands of the manpower agents.
But even after that heart-rending deal, many of these people did not get any jobs. Hundreds of innocent job-seekers have been suffering both financially and mentally at the hands of the unscrupulous manpower agents.
Many families that paid Taka 6 to 7 lakhs by selling off their family properties at throw-away prices were virtually ruined. Such fraudulent activities by the unscrupulous manpower agents are still going on unhindered, as they are not adequately taken to task by the government. According to an official source, so far, nearly 40,000 overseas job-seekers have been cheated this way.
Foreign exchange earning by way of remittances has now overtaken the quantum of foreign exchange earnings of other items. Manpower export has now reached the top of the country's capacity building agenda, both for foreign exchange earning and mitigation of unemployment problem.
But the country does not have any policy for overseas employment, although nearly five million Bangladeshis are working abroad and their remittances account for a sizeable amount of our total foreign currency earnings.
Bangladesh has been facing growing unemployment problem since its independence. A good number of factors, including unbridled growth in population, natural disasters and recession of economy, have contributed much to the ever rising unemployment crisis. The cumulative effects of all such factors have created a dreadful scenario of unemployment, as the formal employment sectors can employ only one third of the new job-seekers every year.
We really feel disheartened when BBS informs us that employment growth rate has been squeezed by half since 2003. Though 2007 has not been covered by the BBS in its LFS, it is quite obvious that the actual unemployment figure will be much higher than the official statistics, as employment generation was almost nil during the period.
The flow of new investments, either domestic or foreign, continues to stagnate. The punitive measures taken against some top industrialists and business leaders has also added to the woes of unemployment. Many industries with thousands of workers are now facing a critical situation as their owners are in jail.
The housing and poultry sectors that emerged as major sources of employment in the urban areas are now facing serious setbacks. The housing sector is facing a deep crisis due to high prices of construction materials on one hand and lack of buyers due to crackdown on corruption on the other. The poultry sector is facing ruin because of bird flu.
It should be carefully noted that the unemployment crisis is sure to be aggravated further in future if the country's demographic balance is not maintained. More than three million new faces are being added to the country's total population of 150 million each year. Most of them will enter the job market after a certain period, raising the number of unemployed.
Surely, unemployment is one of the most pressing problems that the country is confronting today. Creation of jobs in the formal economy, which is a key objective of development policy, is totally absent.
Employment in the manufacturing sector remains stagnant, while the agriculture sector that contributes nearly half of the total employment in the country shows a declining trend. Restoring confidence of the investors carries enormous significance in addressing the woes of unemployment.
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