Skill development investment key to demographic dividend

Bangladesh has been enjoying a high percentage of the work-age population for some time now.

But as the population growth rate decelerates, concerns about how long Bangladesh will enjoy this high work-age population have been raised.

So how will this slowdown impact our labour market? How do we make the best of this demographic dividend until the work-age population dwindles and dependency increases, and how long do we have?

The average population growth rate now stands at 1.22 per cent; the previous census conducted in 2011 was 1.37 per cent.

We see the birth rate is decreasing due to a combination of factors. Simultaneously our life expectancy has risen continuously and the survival rate of women at birth has increased a lot.

All these factors have combined to bear the fruit called demographic dividend – a boost in economic productivity that occurs when there are growing numbers of people in the workforce relative to the number of dependents.

This working-age population will continue to grow until 2037-2038. Although the number of working-age people is expected to grow for some time, the percentage is already on decline.

We have a working-age population of around 65 per cent, but how many jobs are we generating each year? How many jobs were supposed to be created under the ‘8th Five-Year Plan’ by the government? What plans do we have for 2041? Unemployment among the youth group is quite high in Bangladesh.

Compared to 1993-94, youth unemployment has doubled according to the labour force survey 2016-2017.

We need to focus on the jobs that are in high demand in the changing global labour market.

In many scenarios, private organisations complain that they don’t get skilled graduates who are technically sound. So the industry and academia need to have a proper link. We need to assess the situation and make our move appropriately.