Bangladesh needs to create 1.5 million new jobs every year over the next 20 years to ensure development in line with its socio-economic demand, a World Bank report says.

Accelerating growth in Bangladesh’s per capita income has added nearly 1.2 million new jobs every year and improved job quality between 2000 and 2010, the World Bank said in its report titled “More and better jobs in South Asia”.

The report states that the South Asian economic growth, which has been second only to East Asia, needs to be sustained to create more and better jobs and reduce poverty. Bangladesh along with other South Asian countries has seen steady job growth and a substantial decrease in poverty over the past three decades, and South Asia will be the largest contributor to the global workforce over the next two decades, it adds.

The report was presented by Reema Nayar, lead economist, South Asia region of World Bank, on Tuesday at a function at Brac Inn Center in the capital. Atiur Rahman, governor of Bangladesh Bank, was present as chief guest.

Ellen Goldstein, country director for World Bank, Bangladesh, Kalpana Kochhar, chief economist of South Asia region, World Bank, Ahsam H Mansur, executive director, Zaidi Sattar, chairman of Policy Research Institute, Wahiduddin Mahmud, eminent economist, were also present.

The demographic transition in South Asia will result in more than 350 million people to enter the working age population over the next two decades, the report predicts. Despite growth, the region is still home to half billion poor people -- the largest in the world. Since labour is the primary asset of the poor, having more and better jobs is the key employment challenge facing the region, it adds.

The South Asia region, defined by the World Bank as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, will need to add between 1 and 1.2 million additional jobs every month for the next twenty years, equivalent to about 40 percent of the increase in the global labour force, the report says.

Goldstein said, “The challenge for Bangladesh is to create higher quality jobs. Investing in education, health and nutrition and infrastructure, along with economic reforms would help create more and better jobs.”

“But the greatest payoffs to improve skills and the consequent ability to access better jobs may come from interventions before children enter formal schooling,” she added. “It’s not only the quantity of jobs but the quality of the jobs being created in the region is relevant,” said Kochhar.

She said wage workers in Bangladesh have seen their wages rise for price increases by nearly 2 percent a year and poverty rates among the self-employed have fallen. While quality of jobs has improved, little upward mobility has seen across the self-employed, casual laborers, and regular wage or salaried earners, Kochhar added.

The report suggests, among other things, sustained attention to electricity, education and utilising the demographic dividend can make an important difference. The working age (15-64) population in Bangladesh is growing more rapidly than the dependents, it adds.

“The resources that would have been required to support an otherwise larger dependent population are thus potentially available for the high-priority physical and human capital investment needed to create better jobs,” Atiur Rahman said.

Since the demand for labour is derived from businesses, it is important to address electricity shortages, which affect the functioning of virtually all firms in Bangladesh. The report suggests that improvements in the regulatory framework and governance are as critical as investments in those sectors.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 29th Feb 2012