Over three per cent of Bangladesh’s total labour force, around 1.5 crore, lost their job in the pandemic period finds a study jointly conducted by the Center for Policy Dialogue and the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies.
The findings of the study were at a webinar on Saturday.
Of the total job loss, some 6.7 per cent jobs were lost in the urban informal economy and the highest number of a job loss would be in the SMEs and informal sector by the end of 2021 if the pandemic goes unchecked.
From March to September 2020, some 0.4 million migrants lost their jobs finds the study "Recovery of the Labour Market during Covid-19: Role of Trade Union".
COVID-19 took a severe toll on women entrepreneurship as 50 per cent of women entrepreneurs were forced to lay off 76-100 per cent of their workers, CPD said citing a report of Asia Foundation.
Based on the level of risks and severity of COVID-19 impact, BILS in 2020 has categorised the sectors into three categories ranging from high, medium and low risk.
Manufacturing, construction, transport, wholesale and retail trade, food and accommodation services, and personal services were among sectors facing high and severely impact followed by finance, domestic service, retail estate and education as sectors facing medium-high risk and severity while agriculture, health, information and communication are categorised as sectors facing low-risk and severity of impact.
The study also finds that about 69 per cent of the employed population in urban areas were in high-risk states as they share 49 per cent of the country’s economy.
Citing the World Bank data of 2020, the study said that wage of overall workers declined by 37 per cent nationally while it was 42 per cent in Dhaka and 33 per cent in Chattogram.
Salary of the service sector declined as much as 49 per cent while revenue in the SMEs sector was declined to 66 per cent during the pandemic period.
The study citing Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data said that the income of all the families, including migrants dropped by 20 per cent.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the CPD, presented the key findings of the study at a virtual dialogue jointly organised by the CPD and BILS.
The study warned that a slower recovery in terms of job creation in labour-intensive sectors, women-led enterprises would deepen the crisis in the job market during the pandemic period.
