Number of unemployed up by 1.5 m in 3-month

Zarif Mahmud: From April to June this year, the number of people employed has decreased by almost a quarter of 11 lakh compared to the same period of the previous year. During this time, the number of people eligible to join the work force has decreased by more than 9 lakhs. The overall unemployment rate increased from 3.41 percent to 3.65 percent.
This information has been revealed in the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) quarterly labor force survey report. The report was prepared on the basis of data collection from one lakh 23 thousand 264 houses in 1,284 sample areas on the basis of random selection across the country.
Employed is defined as those who have engaged in productive work for at least 1 hour in the last 7 days for salary or wages or profit or for their own consumption of food. BBS adopted this definition following the guidelines of International Labor Organization (ILO).
According to the analysis of the data provided on the website of BBS, the number of people employed in the country during the period from April to June has decreased to 6 crore 96 lakh 40 thousand. In the same period of the previous financial year, this number was 7 crore 7 lakh 10 thousand. According to this, employment decreased by 10 lakh 70 thousand in one year. Out of this, 330,000 men and 740,000 women’s jobs have decreased.
On the other hand, 1 lakh 40 thousand working people became unemployed again in those three months. At this time, the number of unemployed people in the country stood at 26 lakh 40 thousand. At the same time last year, the number of unemployed people was 2.5 million. Earlier in the same quarter of 2016, there were 2.7 lakh unemployed in the country.
A gender-based review showed the unemployment rate among men rose to 3.85 percent in the three months, the highest in 14 years. In total, the number of unemployed in the country is now 20 lakh 64 thousand.
According to the report, the number of new unemployed is higher among men. At that time, the number of unemployed men in the country was 18 lakh 50 thousand, which was 16 lakh 70 thousand at the same time last year. That is, unemployment among men has increased by 1 lakh 80 thousand. But surprisingly, unemployment among women has decreased during this period compared to the previous period. Female unemployment decreased from 8 lakh 30 thousand to 7 lakh 90 thousand. Total unemployment is determined by averaging the decrease in unemployment among women and increase among men.
According to the BBS definition of unemployed, unemployed are those people who have not worked for at least 1 hour in the last 7 days. but was ready to work and in the last 30 days had sought some work for salary or wages or profit.
On the other hand, the number of people out of the labor force also increased during April-June. According to the BBS report, 20 lakh 19 thousand people are out of the labor force. This number is now 4 crore 95 lakh 10 thousand, which was 4 crore 73 lakh 20 thousand at the same time last year. Such populations have increased in both men and women.
Those who are not employed or considered unemployed are essentially the population outside the labor force. Usually students, sick, elderly, unable to work, retired and not engaged or unwilling to engage. The BBS defines them as the population outside the labor force.