Unemployment rate drops as women participation rises

Bangladesh’s unemployment rate declined to 3.6 per cent from 4.2 per cent in the last five years, riding on the increased participation of women in the labour force, says the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2022.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) released the provisional Quarterly LFS at a press conference held at its auditorium in Dhaka on Wednesday.

As per the survey, the country now has 26.3 lakh jobless people, which is 2.59 per cent lower than 27 lakh in 2016-17. Of the total unemployed population, 16.9 lakh are male, up from 14 lakh in the previous survey.

The women’s unemployment rate, however, has declined. Currently, there are 9.4 lakh unemployed women. It was 13 lakh in the last survey, which means the rate dropped to 3.6 per cent from 6.7 per cent in the last survey.

On the other hand, the male unemployment rate went up to 3.6 per cent from 3.1 per cent.

The country’s total labour force also rose to 7.34 crore in 2022, from 6.35 crore five years ago. Out of the total, 4.74 crore are men and 2.59 crore are women. Of the jobless people, 16.9 lakh are men and 9.4 lakh are women.

Female participation in the labour force has increased to 42.68 per cent in 2022, up from 36.3 per cent five years ago.

According to the survey, the female labour force participation rate increased significantly over the past five years, especially in rural areas, which indicates that more women are now able to access employment opportunities and contribute to the country’s economic growth.

Rural participation of women in work is 50.89 per cent and 22.59 per cent in urban areas, the survey said.

Using the second zonal operation of Housing Census-2022 as a sampling frame, 1,284 primary enumeration areas across the country and 24 cells from each of the primary enumeration areas were determined. The information was collected from 30,816 houses quarterly.

In the last five years, 99 lakh people entered the job market but 3 lakh job opportunities shrunk in all industries, which contributed 35.27 per cent to the country’s GDP.

BBS Director General Md Matiar Rahman said they surveyed in line with International Labour Organization requirements to ensure its standard and make it acceptable to the international community.

“If we conduct such a survey on local mythology, then it would not have been accepted by the international community. Thanks to the survey, we have learned the actual number of people who are eligible to work. It is most important,” he said.

According to the survey, the country had a 7.34 crore labour force that consists of people aged 15 years or older in 2022 and 7.08 crore of them work in different sectors.

Among them, the highest 3.22 crore people work in agriculture, which was 2.47 crore five years ago.

Some 1.21 crore people work in the industrial sector, which was 1.24 crore in 2016-17. Also, 2.67 crore people work in the services sector, which was 2.37 crore in the last survey.

Planning Minister MA Mannan said that apparel dominates the industrial sector with the highest number of workers but its total employment has been stuck at around 40 lakh for a while now. Employment is not rising in other sectors as well. “And that is why more and more people are getting involved in the low-cost agriculture sector,” he added.