13 lakh employments created in last fiscal year: Survey

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DHAKA, March 20, 2018 (BSS) – Some 13 lakh new employment opportunities were created in the country in the last fiscal year (FY17) while some 14 lakh people entered into paid employments from unpaid employments during the same period.

“As a result, the number of employment opportunities created in the country over the last fiscal year stood at 27 lakh,” according to the findings of the Labour Force Survey 2016-17 which was disseminated today at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) auditorium.

The survey findings also revealed that during the time, around 10 lakh employment opportunities for Bangladeshis were created in abroad making overall employment opportunities 37 lakh.

Planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal graced the seminar as the chief guest while state minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan spoke as the special guest.

Secretary in-charge of the statistics and informatics division Saurendra Nath Chakrabhartty presided over the seminar.

BBS director general Md Amir Hossain delivered the welcome address while Project director of LMIS Project and BBS director Kabir Uddin Ahmed made a power-point presentation on the findings of the Labour Force Survey 2016-17.

Speaking on the occasion, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said Bangladesh is no longer a poor country, rather it has got the recognition of a developing country from the LDC status.

“Bangladesh is now like other developing countries of the world like China, India and Malaysia,” Kamal said.

He also hoped that Bangladesh would attain a robust GDP growth in the current fiscal year.

He also noted that everyone in the country would have to work hard in the coming days to keep up the momentum of the LDC graduation.

State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan said the female labour force is gradually increasing in the country compared to the male which shows the sign of women empowerment in the country.

The survey findings showed that the labour force increased by 2.3 percent (male 1.0 percent and female 4.6 percent) over the last year with the creation of 13 lakh new employments. Besides, 14 lakh people were transferred to paid employments from unpaid employments.

Apart from this, the unemployment rate remains as same with 4.2 percent while the unemployed men versus women ratio was almost 50:50.

The employment generation in the industry sector witnessed a rise of 1.8 percent while the overall labour force is transforming into high productivity from low productivity sector. In real sense, the country is witnessing job- rich growth instead of job-less growth.

During the 2016-17 period, the number of contributing unpaid family workers decreased sharply by 18.6 percent while the highest proportion (48 percent) in the formal employment were highly educated, labour under utilisation has decreased by 7.5 percent, majority of the manufacturing workers were found working in the RMG sector while half of the workers are self-employed and 40 percent of the employed persons.