From right, Zahid Hussain, lead economist at the World Bank’s Dhaka office; Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation; Abdul Bayes, director for research and evaluation division at Brac; Rizwanul Islam, senior visiting fellow at the Centre for Development and Employment Research, and Rushidan I Rahman, executive chairperson of the centre, attend a discussion on employment, at BIDS in Dhaka yesterday. Star
One-fourth, or 11 million, of the country’s 43.43 million youth population is neither in education nor in the labour force — a concerning number as the society is deprived of their contribution.
Males outnumber females in this group, said Rushidan Islam Rahman, executive chairperson of the Centre for Development and Employment Research (CDER), at a seminar yesterday.
CDER formally launched its activities through the event, which it jointly organised with the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
The numbers imply that a huge chunk of the youth population is unutilised, she said at the seminar — Bangladesh Employment and Labour Market Watch, 2017.
The number of youth population aged between 15 and 29 years rose to 43.43 million in 2013 from 39.25 million in 2010, Rahman said.
The number of youth labour force increased to 23.35 million in 2013 from 20.90 million three years ago, implying the positive growth of potential demographic dividend.
However, labour force participation rose slightly among youths, with participation among males falling while female increasing.
Apart from the absence of one-fourth of the country’s youth in the labour force, high unemployment among graduates and postgraduates also raises concerns and questions about the quality of education offered by the universities.
