BBS survey: 2.6 million jobless despite labour gains

As many as 2.6 million people are still jobless despite new job creation, according to a survey by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics or BBS.

The labour force participation rate that sheds light on the economic activity of a nation rose to 58.5 percent in 2015-16 from 57.1 percent in 2013 in signs of an improvement in the job market, according to the survey released to the media on Sunday.

Of the 62.1 million workforce, 59.5 million people were employed, while 2.6 million persons were still unemployed in 2015-16.

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the first quarterly survey by BBS, shows 1.4 million new jobs have been created in Bangladesh since 2013.

The majority of the population outside the workforce was female, but the number decreased by 4.4 percent to 34.5 million in 2015-16, compared to 2013. Meanwhile, men outside the workforce remained stable at 9.5 million in the same period.

Bangladesh also decreased the number of unpaid family helpers to 8.6 million in 2015-16 from 10.6 million in 2013. For women, it declined by 20.2 percent in the same period.

The new study is a major transition from a one-shot survey over 4-5 years to a quarterly, continuous survey. The statistical agency said it increased the sample size to 123,000 households in the latest survey from 36,000 in the previous study. 
 
Agriculture is still the biggest contributor to job creation, followed by the services sector. However, the farm sector’s contribution fell to 42.7 percent in 2015-16 from 45.1 percent in 2013. 
 
The majority of manufacturing jobs came from the garment industry. Garment factories created 52 percent of all manufacturing jobs, while textile companies accounted for 23.7 percent of them.