“Where do you see yourself in five years?” When an interview board asks the question, the candidate gives a brief reply: “Sir, I would be happy if I could simply pay next month’s mess rent for now.”

Although the joke has become popular on social media, it reflects the grim reality facing millions of highly educated unemployed people in the country.

After earning a degree, young people now worry more about meeting their monthly living expenses than pursuing long-term professional ambitions.

The latest Labour Force Survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) provides statistical evidence of this reality.

According to the data, the unemployment rate among highly educated people or university graduates currently stands at 13.54 per cent, the highest among all educational groups. In total, around 885,000 graduates in the country remain unemployed.

By contrast, the unemployment rate among people with no formal education is only 1.25 per cent. In other words, the higher the level of formal education in Bangladesh, the greater the risk of remaining unemployed.