A recent job fair in Dhaka gives a grim picture of the country's unemployment situation, especially among the educated youth. Organised last week by career platform Nextjobs, the fair brought together 75 companies with a total of 374 vacancies. But the number of jobseekers it attracted was overwhelming. Around 20,000 graduates submitted their CVs in the hope of securing a job. That means more than 50 candidates were competing for each position. One particular company shared its predicament with a correspondent of this newspaper after receiving more than 200 applications for just two vacant posts. If competition for private-sector jobs is this intense, the race for government jobs is even more cutthroat.
A few other recent newspaper reports highlight the gravity of the unemployment situation. One report informs that last year a government office in Pabna had advertised vacancies for 18 low-ranking posts, requiring only an eighth-grade or SSC-level qualification. However, those ultimately got employed in the posts were BSC engineers, MBAs and postgraduates. Another report mentions that more than 1.2 million applicants, mostly graduates and post-graduates, applied for just 312 third-class jobs under the Ministry of Social Welfare. The question is, why are youths having university degrees so desperate for even low-ranking government jobs? One reason could be the safety and security in government jobs, while another is the soaring unemployment rate. At the same time, employers often complain that fresh graduates lack the skills they are looking for. This underscores the fact that many youths are leaving universities with degrees but without the practical skills needed to secure decent employment.
Employment situation is closely linked to economic growth. Bangladesh has been witnessing high unemployment since the Covid-19 pandemic, when the wheels of the economy were brought to an abrupt halt. Then, when the pandemic was brought under control and the economy was turning around, the Russia-Ukraine war dealt another blow. At the same time, corruption, plundering of financial institutions and money laundering plunged the economy into a serious mess. Frustration over bleak job prospects was one of the main reasons behind the mass uprising of July 2024. Ironically, however, the situation apparently worsened during the tenure of the interim government, as hundreds of factories were closed due to labour unrest, politically motivated retaliatory attacks on factories, abrupt hikes in bank loan interest rates and other factors. The current BNP government, which promised to create 10 million jobs, has announced incentives to reopen closed factories and taken measures to reopen closed state-owned jute and sugar mills through private investment. Efforts are also underway to reduce bank lending rates and simplify business regulations in a bid to encourage private investment and spur job creation. But external shocks, such as the conflict in the Middle East and rising global energy prices, along with domestic gas and electricity shortages, remain major drags on private investment and the economic recovery.
The government must therefore take all-out measures to overcome the energy crisis and improve the investment climate. Without significant acceleration in private investment, unemployment will remain high, which may well create the conditions for another wave of youth-led movements. At the same time, curricula need to be devised in a way that prepares young people for an AI-driven world, where desk-bound and manually repetitive jobs will shrink while demand for technically skilled workers will grow. A supportive environment for aspiring entrepreneurs, including access to soft loans and simplified business registration, can also go a long way towards tackling unemployment.
