As unemployment is a curse for a nation, the government is determined to create three crore employment opportunities by 2030.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday in a post budget press conference made her stand clear again that her government is very serious about the burning issue.
As the country’s major portion of youths including the higher educated ones remain unemployed, the ruling Awami League is set to create massive employment opportunity as per its electoral promises. Currently, the country is burdened with 26.77 lakh unemployed people, that include a big number of higher educated youths.
The unemployment rate is acute among the country’s graduate and post-graduate degree holders who are facing a serious dearth of job vacancy both in government and private sectors. However, there are more than 3.36 lakh vacant posts in the country’s government service.
While asked whether it is possible to create three crore more employment by 2030, as currently only seven to eight lakh new jobs are being created per year, PM said, “Employment does not mean only getting government job. We are creating employment opportunity in different sectors. Our government has created 100 economic zones, hi tech parks as well as we are giving incentive in agriculture and various business sectors. This will create millions of employment opportunities.”
A three-year programme has been taken up to increase the job creation rate in the industrial sector through improvement of business and investment environment, PM also said. “The government will facilitate qualitative employment for the growing population by effecting reforms in the rest of the rules and policies within the next 2 years”, she further said.
Citing that as per demand of education ministry MPO-enlistment of educational institutions has begun, PM said in FY2019-20, allocation in education and technology sector has been increased. Mentioning that the government has formulated ‘Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100’, the premier said implementation of the mega plan will require big investment of 2.5 percent of total GDP of which 2.0 percent would be met from public sector and the rest 0.5 percent from the private sector.
In the budget, Tk 100 crore have been allocated for the training and employment of specific groups of people, she added. International Labour Organization (ILO) unveiled its ‘Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook-2018’ last November where it showed a comparative study of overall employment scenario among 28 regional countries since 2000 to 2017.
According to the ILO report, 10.7 percent Bangladeshi higher educated youths are unemployed, second highest among 28 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The Labour Force Survey 2016-17 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows that a substantial portion of country’s youths are unemployed.
According to the report, a total of country’s 2.1 million or 10.6 percent of youth is unemployed where the rate is higher in urban areas than that in rural areas. The female youths are more vulnerable in urban areas as 16.7 percent female are out of work compared with 8.7 percent for males, proving city life is more critical for youths especially for female. According to the ILO report, the unemployment rate among Bangladeshi youths doubled in 2017 compared with 2010, as it reached to 12.8 percent in 2017.
