Bangladesh’s 36pc educated young unemployed, says IMF

Thirty-six per cent of young educated people are unemployed in Bangladesh, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

The IMF published the data in its September issue of Finance & Development magazine.

The report said, “Youth unemployment is elevated across Asia but is often highest among those with the most advanced education, according to IMF research.”

AI has the potential to deliver gains in growth and productivity, but the technology could also intensify labour market pressures on young workers if adoption moves faster than skills develop, said Krishna Srinivasan, the IMF’s Asia-Pacific director.

The report also highlighted unemployment rates among educated young people in various countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.

Asked why unemployment is higher among educated young people in Bangladesh, Fahim Mashroor, founder and managing director of Bdjobs.com, a leading online job-search platform, told Prothom Alo that the number of bachelor’s degree holders has increased significantly over the past 20 years.

In 2010, bachelor’s degree holders accounted for only 3.9 per cent of the labour force, and the figure rose to 9 per cent in 2022. The number of bachelor’s degree holders increased two and a half times in 12 years, but the job market has not changed much. Neither has the economic structure changed. New industries and factories capable of absorbing new graduates have not been created either, he added.

According to Fahim Mashroor, 2.2 million to 2.3 million young people enter the labour market every year, 750,000 of whom hold bachelor’s degrees.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ (BBS) Labour Force Survey 2024, over 2.62 million people are unemployed in the country. Of them, 2.03 million are young people aged between 15 and 29. Nearly 29 per cent of these unemployed people are highly educated or hold bachelor’s degrees.

BBS data show that more than 17 per cent of highly educated young jobseekers remain unemployed for more than two years. More than 15 per cent of highly educated young people remain unemployed for one to two years. This means one in every three highly educated young people remains unemployed for more than a year.

According to the IMF report, 43 per cent of young educated people in Sri Lanka are unemployed, while the figure is more than 40 per cent in India. In addition, the unemployment rate among such people is above 20 per cent in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The IMF said highly educated young people are struggling to find jobs that match their qualifications. As the use of AI increases in Southeast Asian labour markets, many fear that job opportunities for highly skilled workers may decline in the coming years.

The IMF said the problem is not limited to the number of unemployed people. Even where jobs are available, there is a persistent mismatch between the skills required and those possessed by graduates. Many complex tasks can now be performed for free using artificial intelligence (AI) models. As a result, organisations are reducing their need for many paid entry-level technical positions.

The IMF said highly educated young workers are struggling to find positions that match their qualifications. Many worry that the growing integration of AI into labour markets across Southeast Asia could reduce job opportunities for highly skilled workers in the years ahead.

The IMF said the problem is not limited to the number of unemployed people. Despite job opportunities being available, there is a persistent mismatch between the skills required and those possessed by graduates. Increasingly, many complex tasks can be farmed out to artificial intelligence (AI) models for free, reducing the need for many entry-level technical roles on company payrolls.

According to the IMF report, about 1.2 billion people will join the labour market in developing economies over the next decade. More than half a century ago, there were about 500 million young adults set to enter the workforce across the world’s emerging market and developing economies.

Earlier, a World Bank report titled The Global Jobs Challenge, published last June, said these young people are likely to represent the largest youth cohort in history. The number will be higher than in any previous decade and higher than the forecast for any decade for the remainder of this century.