Inclusive growth needed to strengthen domestic demand of labour intensive industries
Speakers at Employment and Labour Market Watch 2017
Staff Reporter
Experts at a seminar yesterday suggested that more inclusive growth can help strengthen the domestic demand of labour intensive industries like-- garments, shoes, furniture and housing and employment which will augment employment generation.
Experts expressed their views at the programme titled Employment and Labour Market Watch 2017 held at the conference room of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies in the capital yesterday.
The programme was jointly organised by recently formed think tank, Centre for Development and Employment Research (CDER) and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
Senior visiting fellow of CDER Rizwanul Islam and executive chairperson of CDER Rushidan Islam Rahman, presented two different keynote papers regarding the employment and labour market in Bangladesh.
Dr KAS Murshid, director general of BIDS, was inaugurated the seminar with an introductory remark.
Rizwanul Islam presented a keynote paper--Employment and Labour Market Watch
2017, where he addressed a number of issues including proposed indicators and targets for Bangladesh, how is Bangladesh doing on employment generation.
Rizwanul Islam said, I have comprised this presentation into three parts; sustainable development goals (SDGs) relating to employment, utilisation of labour forces, employment in Readymade garments (RMGs).
The keynote speaker also described four indicators to achieve the SDGs goal by 2030.
These are; growth rate of labour productivity, employment to population ratio, proportion of employed people living below the poverty line and proportion of own account and contributing family workers in total employment which also named as vulnerable employment ratio.
The presenter, Rizwanul Islam also suggests that it is necessary to identify indicators that would be more appropriate for Bangladesh.
Rizwanul Islam explained some suggested targets for Bangladesh to achieve by 2030 would be-- raise the proportion of employees to about 45 per cent of total employment, it was 23 per cent in 2013.
The informal employment in 2013 was 87 per cent and the country should reduce the proportion to 60 per cent by 2030, he added.
In how is Bangladesh doing part, the keynote speaker has shown the incidence of poverty among employed people. The data showed that in paid employees category, in year 2010, 25.4 per cent paid employees were poor and it has dropped down to 3.5 per cent in 2013.
In domestic workers category, 2010, it was 25.7 per cent and it increased to 54.9 per cent in 2013 and the amount ofpoor workers has also increased, which is an alarming sign for the society.
The second keynote speaker, executive chairperson of CDER Rushidan Islam Rahman, also explained the prospects ofutilisation of young labourforce and updates on RMG employment.
Rushidan Islam Rahman explained the situation of the youth labour forces where she has shown the size of youth population, who are aged in between 15-29 years, was 39.25 million in 2010 and 43.44 million in 2013, which indicates a positive sign.
Labour force participation rate (LFPR) was 53.2 per cent in 2010 compared to 53.8 per cent in 2013 which is a increase by 0.6 per cent, said Rushidan Islam Rahman.
The educated unemployment rate percentage has also been described by the keynote speaker. She has explained that in 2010, in graduate and above category, unemployment rate was 9.9 per cent and it has increased to 16.4 per cent which is not a good sign at all.
At the end of the seminar, the discussion floor was open and some of the distinguished panel members have shared their opinion and views. Among them; Lead Economist World Bank Dhaka Dr Zahid Hussain, Distinguished fellow of CPD Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya and other distinguished guests were participated their views.
