Jobless rate shrinks in 2016, marginally

Unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point in the last fiscal year, although youths, urbanites, female and highly educated remained vulnerable while entering the labour market, according to a new survey.   

The jobless rate decreased to 4.2 per cent in 2015-16 from 4.3 per cent in 2013, the latest Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data showed.

The labour force participation rate also rose over the past one and a half years reaching 58.5 per cent in 2015-16 from 57.1 per cent in 2013, meaning a total of 62.1 million persons from 106.8 million working age population (15+ years). The number of population outside labour force is 44 million.

Of these 62.1 million labour force, 59.5 million were employed and 2.6 million unemployed in 2015-16.

The BBS revealed the data at a dissemination seminar on 'Findings of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2015-16' at its auditorium in the city.

Statistics and Information Division (SID) secretary Mozammel Hoq was present at the seminar as the chief guest.

Director of BBS Kabir Uddin Ahmed presented the quarterly labour force survey. A total of 123,000 households were surveyed in 2015-16 against 36,000 in 2013.

Meanwhile, the number of male labour force increased to 43.1 million until 2016 against 42.5 million in 2013, a small increase in 0.6 million, Kabir Uddin said, adding female labour force increased 0.9 million from 18.1 million in 2013.

The male and female ratio in labour force is 81.9 and 35.6 per cent in 2015-16, which was 81.7 and 33.5 per cent in 2013.

The report said Bangladesh labour market continued to improve over the years as the rate of unpaid family helpers decreased to 8.6 million in 2015-16 from 106 million in 2013.

For female, it decreased 20.2 per cent or 1.7 million from 8.4 million in 2013. But unpaid family helper category is dominated by female, which is 15 per cent.

The unemployment ratio of male and female is 50:50, while the rate of unemployment among the females went down by 6.8 per cent while the male unemployment rate decreased by 3.0 per cent.

Unemployment rate was higher among female than male. Also unemployment is higher in urban areas, which was 4.4 per cent compared with 4.1 per cent in rural areas in 2015-16.

Unemployment is also higher among youths aged 20-24 years, 10.4 per cent for both sexes while female unemployment is recorded at 12.8 per cent, compared with 9.1 per cent female unemployment.

The unemployment rate was the highest recorded by the population completing tertiary level education at around 12.1 per cent for both sexes while it is higher among females with 15 per cent and male 10.8 per cent.      

Female outside the labour force decreased by 4.4 per cent, which is 1.6 million to 34.5 million in 2015-16 compared to 36.1 million in 2013.