Prudent policy interventions needed to tackle 3.5m unemployed people in 2023

Around 3.5 million people in Bangladesh would remain unemployed in 2023, surpassing the pre-pandemic level by 0.4 million, necessitating prudent government policy interventions. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) revealed this prediction in its latest report titled ‘World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023’ on Monday, forecasting 4.8 percent of Bangladesh’s total workforce would keep on unemployed, down from the projected 5.0 per cent in 2022, but 0.6 percentage points higher than the pre-pandemic level of 4.4 per cent in 2019.
 According to newspaper reports yesterday, the ILO prediction further added that the current global economic slowdown is likely to force more workers to accept lower quality, poor paid jobs which lack job security and social protection, thus accentuating inequalities exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis. It also said the global employment growth is slated to rise slightly in 2023, less than half of the level in 2022. This slight increase is largely due to tight labour supply in high-income countries. It means the global unemployment will remain 16 million above the pre-crisis benchmark (set in 2019).
 Reportedly, the pace of job creation has slowed in recent years, as confirmed by the latest Labor Force Survey released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The slowdown was particularly sharp in the RMG sector. This development put at risk many of the labour market gains made over the last decade, placing particular pressure on women and young workers. Unemployment rates among youth, particularly females, have already seen an increase in recent years. The biggest challenge is job quality, which remains poor with substantial numbers of workers employed in informal, unpaid, or agricultural work.
So what can Bangladesh do? First, it has to create jobs on a large scale to absorb a growing labour force. It also has to accelerate productivity growth and diversify manufacturing and services sectors, with a focus on expanding exports and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Second, to exploit the growth potential of Bangladesh’s vast array of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which account for 98 per cent of all firms and account for half of all jobs. Finally, to improve the investment climate and increase firm capabilities, both in the formal and informal sectors.
 Addressing these challenges must be a priority for Bangladesh now. This is not an easy task. It is encouraging that key policymakers, academia and think tank researchers, development partners as well as private sector partners are thinking deeply about these challenges. Now is the time for a stronger commitment to face these challenges on the way to employment.