Govt set to launch National Employment Policy

The government is set to launch the “National Employment Policy 2022” weighing the increasing number of unemployed people who are capable but struggling to find any job in the country.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment also proposed launching employment insurance at the national level for professionals.

The cabinet approved the policy on April 6 aiming for the welfare of the working class people and to create new jobs.

Meanwhile, the government is also mulling revisions to other policies, including education and commerce, to cope with the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution and modern technologies.

Currently in the country, people aged between 15 and 64 are the largest cohorts who are capable of working but most of them are unemployed. Each year, 22 lakh people enter the domestic labour market.

The new policy aims to establish a society free of poverty and unemployment by making the manpower skilled and suitable. To accelerate economic development, 100 economic zones will be established where around one crore people will be employed directly and indirectly.

The government wants to eliminate unemployment by creating jobs for three crore people within 2030.

As per the policy, a national employment database will be prepared, using information from the national identity cards, which will have detailed data on professional and educational skills of the people.

An employment directorate and a national carrier guidance council will be formed for manpower management based on the new policy.

The national employment policy stated that the employment directorate will be created to provide employment services under the labour and employment ministry and based on labour market data.

The directorate would provide different services, including registration and employment, and prepare manpower for employment. Besides, it would fetch projects and programmes to analyse demand, direction and the nature of employment services regularly.

A functional labour market information system will be developed to publish information on demands in local and global labour markets every five years.

All these matters were included in the employment policy as the country would not be able to face the fourth in dustrial revolution challenges with the current education system and skills.

Within three to four years, around 56 lakh people should be adequately upskilled. Otherwise, the country would be left behind while technologies would advance. Meanwhile, the fifth industrial revolution is likely to emerge in 2050 with a possible theme of “personalisation”.

Training is essential for making skilled workers by utilising their skills and ensuring a safe working environment for labourers in the informal sector who contribute massively to the national economy.

Training institutes should be built with private initiatives along with government efforts to manage employment for a large population. The policy was formulated to fulfil this objective.

The rate of job creation is 3.32 per cent in the country though the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate is more than 8 per cent, the employment policy said. Every year, 18.4 lakh and five lakh jobs should be created at domestic and overseas levels respectively to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target by 2030.

The national employment policy will determine how and where this huge population can find sustainable employment. Those unable to get jobs but are willing to work can get an unemployment allowance.

According to the policy, the rate of unemployment is high among the educated youths, which stands at 10.6 per cent. The country currently has more young people compared to the whole population who are unemployed.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi workers are failing to make a strong position in the international labour market amid stiff competition as among the expatriate workers, 62 per cent are unskilled, 36 per cent are semi-skilled, and only 2 per cent are skilled.

The lack of skill-based proper training was identified as the key reason behind this scenario. The country would eventually lose its productivity in the employment sector and GDP would slide if this situation continues in the future, which will potentially hinder Bangladesh’s journey to becoming a developed country.

Currently, the country has more than six crore people capable of working and the policy was made to take measures to utilise them fully, which can elevate the standards of institution-based education.

Hundreds of technical education and training institutes would be established to create the desired manpower as per the requirements. The policy focuses on internships for students in industrial institutes and training for semi-skilled workers.

The formal sector has only 15 per cent skilled workers in the country while around 85 per cent work in the informal sector, which makes the highest contribution to the national economy. Plans have been made to ensure a safe and healthy environment for workers in the informal sector.

Besides, half of the population are females and their participation in work has increased significantly. Female students are doing comparatively well than their male counterparts in different public examinations.

The share of women workers was only 7 per cent in 1983, which has increased to 30 per cent at present. Taking special measures for women workers has been recommended in the employment policy.

11 challenges of policy implementation

The government has specified 11 challenges in implementing the plan of creating skilled manpower by utilising the national employment policy. They are inadequate sector-based training centres with modern technology; a shortage of modern benefits, instruments, and skilled trainers; a lack of government and private initiatives; a lack of education and language proficiency of workers; weakness in operating and monitoring training institutes; and a lack of accurate data on manpower demand and supply in different sectors.

Other challenges include not prioritising technical education and experience of trainers in cases of appointments, a shortage of capacity to bear training costs, wrong prejudices among people, and a lack of modern training manuals and trainers who would be able to create suitable and skilled manpower for national economic development.

According to the regulation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), people who get less than one hour of paid work weekly are called unemployed. As per the latest survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the country has 27 lakh

unemployed people.

A report of the Finance Division titled “Study on Employment, Productivity and Sectoral Investment in Bangladesh” stated that the country has 1.15 lakh disguised unemployed people. Young people between 15 and 19 years of age who do not have any work or are not receiving training or education are called disguised

unemployed people.

The employment policy was formulated to build a developed country by 2041 while the government has plans to elevate the country to the upper-middle income status by 2030.

Moreover, the policy was formulated considering building a safe delta by 2100 after marking 100 years of independence in 2071.