One of the rosy goals that the government has set for the country, albeit cherished, is to achieve a higher level of prosperity in the days ahead by becoming a middle income one. However, given that mere cherishing will not help, there has to be efforts to pursue it vigorously.
The ground realities do not suggest that there are sufficient initiatives in place to get things moving as they should have been. The economy is experiencing a slow-down on most fronts, believed to be largely due to prolonged political instability for around a year. Merchandise export is not able to keep the required momentum. The key earners of the economy -- readymade garment and workers' remittance -- are faced with shocks that they need to ride out quickly. The employment situation has not seen any improvement. Investment, especially foreign investment, is far from showing any sign of recovery since the past two and a half years. Consequently, the cumulative effect on GDP (gross domestic product) growth can not be expected to lend a high shine, at least for some time in foreseeable future.
Although there are controversies as to the right approach to quickly fetch economic returns in a country like Bangladesh, job creation is recognised as an activity integrally tied to all other development initiatives, including increased flow of investment and exports. The recently released World Bank Report 2013: Jobs has highlighted that developing an organised labour market could be critically important for Bangladesh in achieving the vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2021. One of the key potentials for creating jobs, the report suggests, lies in encouraging upward mobility of the relatively unskilled labour through transition from the farm to non-farm sectors.
The report, while lauding the achievements of Bangladesh in the fields of poverty reduction and human development on a range of social indicators, maintains that the country can set a target of creating additional 15 million jobs in next ten years by establishing more economic zones in order to be on track to move ahead. Presently, the number of people entering the job market annually is 2.2 million, and those who are provided with jobs are less than 1.0 million. The report recommended for paying attention to the relatively neglected dimensions of job creation in Bangladesh: the issue of skill development for meeting the potential demand for rewarding jobs, especially in export sectors and overseas migration. The report also found that the Bangladeshi migrant workers are taking "relatively low-skilled and low-paid jobs" compared to their counterparts from neighbouring countries.
The issues pointed out in the report are well recognised. Hoping to bring a sea change in the job scenario will call for a medium to long-term strategy. The fact that such job creation has to be in the productive sectors need not be argued. Experts have long been emphasising that Bangladesh must identify potential high-employment generating avenues to lessen the burden on a few such labour-intensive sectors such as the readymade garment and agriculture. However, it remains to be said that job creation is not an isolated affair: it takes the whole economy to create jobs.
It is often held that for a country like Bangladesh the majority of the new jobs should come from the manufacturing sector. While manufacturing for domestic needs and exports is one aspect, the other with high potential could be manufacturing for overseas companies. In the wake of the soaring wage structures all over the world including countries like China, a diversion is most likely to happen by way of relocation of industries to other developing countries. In such a situation Bangladesh can in all probability be a choice destination. To rise up to embrace the opportunity, it is crucial that there are newer avenues in the country for the manufacturing sector with job creating potential similar to readymade garments (RMG). But the critical factor that must not be lost sight of is that the opportunity may not last very long.
Rough estimates suggest that at present 22 per cent of the country's work force is employed in the formal sector, while the rest are absorbed in informal sectors where agriculture is still playing a predominant role, but unfortunately resulting in low productivity and low income earnings. Although the manufacturing sector is often recognised as a prospective source for job-creation, agriculture and a host of agro-related sectors, including poultry, fisheries and livestock, must not be undermined as promising areas capable of absorbing increasing number of workforce in the days to come.
There is a general perception that agriculture is an over-saturated sector in the country with little scope to absorb additional manpower. But this does not seem to hold good for the simple reason that seeking a labour-intensive manufacturing sector as an alternative to agriculture is not a ready solution that can be materialised in the short run. What is important is to increase the productivity of the overall agriculture sector by way of value addition - agro-processing, for example - which while providing higher returns can, in turn, fetch relatively higher wages. On the other hand, manufacturing sector has its own limitations as employment generator as it is becoming less labour-intensive and more skill-dependent due to the increasing introduction of newer technologies. The focus on job creation should thus take into account both the sectors.
