Prioritise job creation, especially for the vulnerable

Bangladesh should focus on job creation and integrating vulnerable people into the workforce as well as boosting productivity, experts said at a seminar yesterday.

The country's priority should be creating quality jobs and integrating the vulnerable portion of the population into the workforce, said Bernard Haven, World Bank's senior economist based in Bangladesh.

Haven emphasised the interdependence of job creation with macroeconomic issues, advocating for increased foreign direct investment and the cultivation of a positive business environment.

He also stressed the importance of boosting productivity for both firms and workers, highlighting the necessity of greater investment in human capital.

The South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and the World Bank jointly hosted the seminar, titled "Is South Asia Experiencing Jobless Development?", at BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka.

The prevailing macroeconomic challenges have been hindering private investment and job creation, said Sayema Haque Bidisha, a professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka.

She also urged policymakers to prioritise enhancing the quality of employment rather than merely focusing on numbers.

She further highlighted the gender employment gap, saying that it was still huge.

There is a notable absence of upskilling and reskilling initiatives in decent jobs and the garment sector, said Rubana Haque, vice-chancellor of the Asian University for Women.

"There are so many of the same seminars, so many discussions, but nobody is changing the policy…Universities have a significant role to play to this end," she said.

She also highlighted the disconnect between industry and academia, emphasising the need for focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.

There has been a fall in the employment ratio for both males and females, said Selim Raihan, a professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka and executive director of the SANEM.

"Regarding Bangladesh, at this moment, the most urgent thing for us to see in the upcoming budgets should be macroeconomic stability," he said.

He stressed on the importance of investing in human capital development and policy reform to address the current labour market challenges.

He also laid emphasis on enhancing the efficiency of public investment and tax collection processes for better social protection.

Franziska Ohnsorge, World Bank chief economist for South Asia, presented a report focusing on job resilience in South Asia in light of the World Bank's April 2024 South Asia Development Update revealed recently.

She highlighted the obstacles to job creation in South Asia and the policies needed to remove these obstacles.

"Private investment is languishing; the growth of private investment is much lower than in previous years. Its contribution to GDP is much lower than that of other developing countries," Ohnsorge said.

Talking about the employment scenario in the agriculture sector, she said: "Farmers migrate as an adaptation strategy from agriculture to non-agriculture, but there isn't enough job creation in non-agricultural sectors."

"Merely having a non-zero employment rate is insufficient; employment must grow to accommodate the expanding workforce," she said.

The World Bank report shows that the female workforce is half that of the male workforce in South Asia, and the overall female employment ratio is much lower than in other emerging markets and developing economies.

But one of its novel findings is that male employment is on the decline.