Graduates are growing, but where are the jobs?

Over the past few decades, young people in Bangladesh have shown a growing interest in higher education.

As a result, the number of universities and other tertiary institutions, along with student enrolment, has expanded significantly.

Today, approximately 700,000 students graduate from tertiary education each year. Despite this growth, graduate unemployment remains a pressing concern.

At around 13.5 percent, the unemployment rate among university graduates is higher than that of any other educational group.

The consequences extend beyond the labour market. Growing uncertainty about employment prospects has contributed to rising psychological distress among students and graduates.

A recent study found that 42 percent of university students exhibited symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), while more than half experienced clinical depression and nearly 52 percent suffered from severe anxiety, reflecting the social and economic pressures linked uncertain career prospects.

If Bangladesh fails to generate adequate employment opportunities for its growing number of graduates, the consequences may extend beyond the economy and contribute to social instability. Yet opportunities for job creation do exist.

The global economy is being reshaped by automation, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and data-driven industries associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

While these transformations are creating new opportunities for highly skilled workers around the world, Bangladesh has struggled to develop the industrial and technological ecosystem needed to generate sufficient high-quality jobs for its expanding pool of graduates.

The Changing Nature of Work
The foundation of sustainable economic growth and global competitiveness lies in the effective integration of knowledge, innovation, technology, and skilled human resources.

However, Bangladesh’s economy continues to depend heavily on low-cost labour, informal employment, basic manufacturing, and imported technologies-characteristics more closely associated with earlier stages of industrial development.

Meanwhile, 4IR technologies are transforming labour markets by automating routine tasks and increasing demand for workers with digital skills, critical thinking, creativity, adaptability, and advanced problem-solving capabilities.

As new industries emerge, traditional occupations evolve, and labour markets undergo fundamental transformation, countries that fail to align their economic structures with these changes risk falling behind in both job creation and global competitiveness.

Lessons from Asia
Understanding how other Asian countries have responded to these changes offers important lessons for Bangladesh.

Countries across Asia have pursued different pathways based on their economic structures and national priorities. Singapore invested heavily in digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and workforce reskilling to build a knowledge-based economy.

South Korea promoted advanced manufacturing, robotics, and research-driven industrialisation through close collaboration among government, universities, and industry.

China pursued large-scale industrial upgrading through automation and strategic investments in emerging technologies. India leveraged its large pool of engineering and information technology graduates to expand software exports, digital services, and entrepreneurship.

Vietnam and Malaysia focused on attracting technology-intensive foreign investment while gradually upgrading domestic industrial capabilities and workforce skills.

Despite their differences, these experiences reveal a common lesson: producing more graduates alone is not enough. Employment growth depends on industrial transformation, innovation capacity, technological adoption, and continuous workforce development.

A Gradual and Inclusive Transition
An effective strategy would involve a coordinated national effort that simultaneously promotes economic growth, industrial upgrading, and graduate employment. Bangladesh needs a gradual and context-sensitive development model.

The country cannot abruptly replace millions of low-skilled workers with fully autonomous AI systems or advanced robotics. Such a transition would be economically disruptive and socially destabilising. Instead, technology should be used to enhance human productivity rather than simply replace workers.

The government can play a vital role in facilitating this transition. Incentives can be introduced for industries that adopt collaborative robots (cobots) designed to work alongside humans, while discouraging labour-displacing automation without workforce transition plans.

At the same time, workers should receive continuous workplace-based micro-skilling opportunities in areas such as predictive machine maintenance, digital logistics, data annotation, and AI-assisted industrial operations. In this way, traditional factory workers can gradually transition into 4IR-ready technicians without leaving the workforce.

Technological transformation should also extend beyond manufacturing. Agriculture and the informal service sector continue to employ millions of millions of people in Bangladesh and therefore cannot be ignored.

AI-enabled smartphone platforms in Bangla could help farmers access automated irrigation systems, drone-assisted fertiliser application, cold-storage networks, weather forecasting, and real-time market information. Such technologies could improve productivity, reduce supply-chain losses, and increase rural incomes.

Financing the Transformation
A major question, however, is how Bangladesh can finance such a transformation. Part of the answer lies in the country’s large, young, and increasingly connected population.

By expanding digital service industries, software development, AI-support services, business process outsourcing, digital logistics, and technology-based entrepreneurship, Bangladesh can create new employment opportunities for graduates while earning valuable foreign exchange from global markets.

The income, investment, and tax revenues generated by these sectors can then be reinvested in industrial modernisation, research and development, digital infrastructure, and workforce training.

In this way, the growth of the digital economy can help finance the broader economic and industrial transformation needed for the 4IR.

Looking Ahead
Bangladesh stands at a critical juncture. While the country now produces a large number of graduates each year, their potential cannot be fully utilised without corresponding economic and industrial transformation.

Creating meaningful employment opportunities will require political stability, strong institutions, and consistent long-term policies that encourage investment in innovation, research and development, advanced manufacturing, and technology-intensive industries.

Equally important is the development of a dynamic digital economy capable of generating new sources of employment and export earnings.

With a clear national vision and sustained commitment to industrial upgrading, Bangladesh can transform its growing pool of graduates from a source of unemployment concerns into a powerful driver of economic growth, technological progress, and sustainable development in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era.

(The writer is Distinguished Professor, Eastern University, and former Vice Chancellor, East West University, Bangladesh).