Dhaka, Aug 8 (IANS) As unemployment among educated youth continues to rise in Bangladesh, millions of young people in the country are facing a grim reality, with monthly living expenses increasingly taking precedence over pursuing long-term career ambitions, local media reported on Saturday.
According to the latest Labour Force Survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the unemployment rate among highly educated people, including university graduates, has climbed to 13.54 per cent—the highest recorded across all educational categories. Overall, around 885,000 university graduates in Bangladesh remain without jobs.
By contrast, only 1.25 per cent of people with no formal education are unemployed, highlighting a stark trend in Bangladesh: the higher the level of formal education, the greater the risk of remaining unemployed, according to a report in Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo.
Highlighting the financial pressures confronting unemployed graduates, the report cited an interview board asking a candidate, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” The candidate replied, “Sir, I would be happy if I could simply pay next month’s mess rent for now.”
“Although the joke has become popular on social media, it reflects the grim reality facing millions of highly educated unemployed people in the country,” the report noted.
Professor Ridhwanul Haq of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) at the University of Dhaka has identified the growing gap between educational qualifications and labour-market demands as one of the major challenges.
“In the era of AI, formal employment opportunities will shrink in various fields, from media to accounting. However, opportunities for technically skilled workers will remain, and demand for such skills will increase significantly in the future. Therefore, we must bring technical education in the country up to international standards and increase the use of technology,” he stated.
Citing data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and other global indicators, Prothom Alo reported that 9.39 per cent of young people aged 18 to 24 in Bangladesh are unemployed.
Economists at the Dhaka-based think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and the World Bank said that inadequate skills result in billions of dollars’ worth of human resources remaining underutilised every year.
The report said that prolonged unemployment among highly educated young people is preventing Bangladesh from fully harnessing its crucial “demographic dividend”, costing the country several billion dollars annually in terms of national GDP growth.
Career experts warned that meaningful policy reforms and changes to the education curriculum may take years to materialise. At the same time, thousands of young people across Bangladesh are struggling to make ends meet each month.
“As they try to balance mess rent with recruitment examination application fees, a significant portion of an entire generation’s talent and youth remains trapped in a cycle of uncertainty,” the report highlighted.
–IANS
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