We all know that today’s youth are tomorrow’s future. Unfortunately, leaving youth without work is not going to help in this regard, rather the youth must be provided opportunity to thrive. Only then, they will be able to take helm in future. Sadly, a significant portion of our educated youth are now unemployed, pointing to a grim future.  

When a person cannot find work or sits idle, it is called unemployment. Currently, one of the main curses of Bangladesh is unemployment. The rate of unemployment is increasing day by day. According to a recent UK study, 47 per cent of Bangladeshi graduates are unemployed, which is a serious threat to a developing economy like Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has recently released the labour force survey. According to the survey, there are currently 25 lakh 90 thousand unemployed people in the country.

The average number of unemployed people at the end of 2023 was 24 lakh 70 thousand, insinuating that the number of unemployed in the country has increased compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of male unemployment has also increased. According to BBS data, the number of unemployed men was 1.74 million at the end of last March. This number was 17 lakh 10 thousand in 2023.  

The problem is that more than half of the unemployed youth in Bangladesh are educated. And one of the reasons for this educated unemployment is extreme corruption in all areas as well as political instability, economic recession and lack of employment opportunities in accordance with subject (major).  

Another factor is session jam, compounded by dilapidated education system. Because of session jams, many students have to wait for years to end their formal education and start looking for suitable jobs.

Even after completing Master’s degree, many do not get a god job, prolonging the period of unemployment and spiking up the unemployment rate.
It's very normal that a graduate or post graduate will get a job according to his qualifications after completing his studies. But many students are not getting their desired job, railroading them into pursuing a different life abroad.

This is also one of the reasons why many talented but unemployed youths are leaving the country for a better life in a faraway land. About 49,000 students went to 57 countries during the 2021-22 academic year.

In 2022, 11,000 students migrated to the United States alone. According to UNESCO data, 70,000 to 90,000 Bangladeshi students migrate abroad for higher education every year. This is particularly alarming for our economy and our education system. We are losing talented people.

Unemployment is a curse for a nation, family, society and country. Therefore, research-based measures are needed to eliminate unemployment in the country. In order to stamp out the horrors of unemployment, social awareness should be created along with state initiatives.

Short-term and long-term development and reform measures could be taken by the state. Moreover, emphasis should be placed on providing technical education and increasing opportunities for manpower export by developing skilled workforce.

To create opportunity for innumerable educated youths of the country to play an important role in the national economy and to get rid of the scourge of unemployment, it is necessary to create new employment opportunities for the unemployed people. Besides, it is necessary to provide easy loans so that the youth could develop themselves as entrepreneurs. This could create opportunities for many other unemployed people to get a decent job.