Published : 31 Jul 2026, 06:28 AM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:29 AM
Nearly 287 people now apply, on average, for every job advertised on Bangladesh's largest online recruitment platform, according to a government-backed study.
The figure has climbed sharply from an average of 173 applicants per vacancy before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, jointly published by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission on Thursday, says the labour market has yet to fully recover from the pandemic shock.
Titled “Labour Market Tightness and Aggregate Shocks: Evidence from Bangladesh's Largest Online Job Portal”, the study analyses recruitment advertisements, vacancies and applications posted on Bdjobs between June 2015 and December 2025.
It found that job advertisements fell by 70.2 percent between March and June 2020, while vacancies dropped 75.2 percent.
Job applications, however, declined by only 59.1 percent, pushing competition to a peak of 287.3 applicants per advertised vacancy.
The study, led by Dhaka University economics Prof Atonu Rabbani, analysed data covering 547 weeks.
It found that competition in the online job market jumped 13.9 percent in the first week of the COVID lockdown, peaked at 29.5 percent after three months and remained elevated for around nine months.
It took about 41 weeks for the market to return to its longer-term trend.
Even between 2022 and 2025, applications per advertised vacancy remained about 21 percent above pre-pandemic levels.
The report notes that the findings reflect only the formal labour market, while 85 to 89 percent of Bangladesh's workforce is employed in the informal sector.
It also found that changes in Bangladesh Bank's policy rate explained only about 6 percent of movements in online job advertisements.
