Who will say what is the unemployment rate?

 Who will say what is the unemployment rate

Many companies have laid off workers because of Corona, meaning many people have lost their jobs. This has increased the number of unemployed. Although there are jobs again, the salaries of many have been reduced. Together, the huge population of the country has fallen below the poverty line. But what is that number?

Surveys by several private research institutes have given some idea about this, but no information has been received from the government yet. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.

The number of unemployed usually comes up through the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) labor force survey. But this survey has not been done in the country for five years. The last labor force survey was conducted in 2016. The results were released a year later, in 2016. However, according to the decision of the cabinet, the BBS is to conduct this survey every two years in the country.

According to a search on BBS, the company is more interested in agricultural census and census than labor force survey. However, a new project has been approved to survey the labor force, BBS Director General (DG) Tajul Islam told Prothom Alo. He said preliminary work would begin soon. It was too late to start the survey work as there was no money in the budget.

Many countries around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Thailand, report a monthly rate of unemployment and employment. Even neighboring countries like Nepal and Pakistan publish the results of such surveys on a quarterly basis.

According to BBS officials, 18 types of data were collected under the labor force survey. Notable among these are total labor force participation rate in the country, ratio of employment to population, employment rate, how many workers work in which sector, how many hours to work, number of part-time workers, number of workers in the informal sector, youth labor rate, long term unemployment rate, illiteracy rate, Monthly wages, labor productivity, and overall unemployment rate.

According to the latest 2017 labor force survey, the working population in the country was 8 crore 35 lakh. 6 crore 8 lakh men and women work among them. The number of unemployed is 26 lakh. But there is no doubt that the number of unemployed in the country has increased due to Corona. The government does not have an account of that number.

However, a survey by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), a private research firm, found that the corona has increased the country's overall poverty rate (upper poverty rate) by 42 percent. This information has been given on the basis of a nationwide household-level survey.

Another private research firm, the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said the number of poor people had risen as incomes declined due to corona. As a result, the overall poverty rate has risen to 35 percent.

* Earlier, the labor force survey was conducted in 2016. * Five years ago, the number of unemployed in the country was 26 lakh. * The government itself is not giving the information of unemployment, nor the information of the private sector.

BBS Director-General Tajul Islam told Prothom Alo that BBS has taken an initiative to find out the poverty rate in the country. The survey will be conducted on a random basis from 9 to 13 September. Through this, it will be known what is the poverty rate in the country now. However, the BBS survey has nothing to do with the labor force survey.

According to BBS officials, the new workforce survey will cost Tk 15 crore. The four-year project will be completed in 2024. When asked, the director of the project Aziza Rahman told Prothom Alo that the preliminary work of the new labor force survey has started. Work on the original survey will begin next year.

The concerned officials said that the data will be collected for the whole year (2022). We will have to wait till 2023 to get the results of the survey. However, there is also uncertainty about this time.

Five years ago, a labor force survey found that the graduation rate in the country was 39 percent. The government does not have any information about the percentage of educated unemployed in the country. This information should be obtained through a labor force survey.

Zahid Hossain, a former chief economist at the World Bank in Bangladesh, said one has to look at GDP growth, inflation and employment indicators to know where a country's economy is and where it is heading. Although data on GDP growth and inflation is available in the country, the rate of employment and unemployment has not been known for several years.

Zahid Hossain further said that the government is not liking the information given by several research institutes. Again, the government itself is not giving information on employment and unemployment. How will the government evaluate the progress of the Eighth Five Year Plan if there is no employment data?