Unemployment has declined in Bangladesh, and though this implies extra individuals are contributing to the financial system, analysts aren’t too upbeat concerning the improvement as a lot of the progress passed off in agriculture.
It is because the statistics present that alternatives for jobs in business and service-related sectors aren’t rising at an enough tempo, they mentioned.
For all latest news, follow The My News’s Google News channel. Knowledge of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) point out that the variety of unemployed individuals declined by 60,000, or 2.3 % year-on-year, to 25 lakh within the April-June quarter of 2023.
“This isn’t excellent news for us [the economy] because it signifies that alternatives for enlargement in formal sectors aren’t being correctly used,” Ahsan H Mansur, a famous economist, mentioned yesterday.
“It’s like we’re not shifting ahead,” added Mansur, who’s an government director of the Coverage Analysis Institute (PRI) of Bangladesh.
Mansur additionally mentioned it’s largely individuals who lack the required abilities to maneuver to the economic service sectors that contain themselves with agriculture.
The variety of job holders within the nation stood at 7.07 crore within the April-June interval.
Nonetheless, employment within the service sector dropped to 2.74 crore from 2.75 crore in the course of the corresponding interval a yr in the past.
Then again, employment within the industrial sector grew by 40,000 to 1.21 crore on the similar time.
Within the case of agriculture, employment rose to three.11 crore from 3.08 crore, in accordance with the BBS’ quarterly Labour Pressure Survey launched late final month.
As such, the info exhibits that the agriculture sector remains to be the nation’s fundamental supply for jobs, accounting for 44 % of the general employment figures.
Rizwanul Islam, an economist and former particular adviser for employment on the Worldwide Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, mentioned the elevated employment in agriculture is opposite to expectations.
“This means a reversal of the pattern of improvement,” he added whereas declaring that the decline in employment within the service sector contradicts the same old sample of improvement.
Islam additionally mentioned that whereas there was a small rise in employment within the industrial sector as an entire, the figures might have really declined within the manufacturing section.
He identified that total employment grew by solely 0.33 % in comparison with the nation’s 6 % progress in gross home product, which may be very low.
Moreover, the expansion in employment is low in comparison with that of the labour pressure.
“However the true pattern in casual sector employment isn’t recognized as a result of detailed knowledge has not been reported,” Islam mentioned.
A key indicator of the efficiency of the labour market is the pattern in actual wages, which has been falling for greater than a yr.
“Contemplating all this, I do not see any cause to rejoice the decline in unemployment. Such figures say little or no about the actual scenario as a result of method through which they’re measured,” Islam added.
As outlined by the BBS, an individual is taken into account unemployed once they haven’t labored for even an hour for a whole week or are quickly absent from their place.
“So, various indicators are wanted to know the actual scenario,” Islam mentioned.
The BBS survey additionally signifies that unemployment elevated amongst males however decreased amongst girls.
The PRI’s Mansur agreed that the definition of unemployment doesn’t mirror the actual scenario.
“If we get the correct underemployment situation, we’ll perceive the actual scenario,” he mentioned.
As per ILO pointers, underemployment contains individuals who, regardless that they labored or had a job in the course of the reference week, had been keen and out there to work at higher or extra enough positions.
Aziza Rahman, venture director of the Labour Pressure Survey, mentioned the BBS performed the research in step with the ILO’s definition of unemployment.
“Our full report could also be revealed subsequent month [September], the place the BBS will publish the main points of underemployment,” Rahman added.