Youth Employment Scenario in Rural Areas of Bangladesh: A Case of Mohammedpur West Union

Ranjan Kumar GuhaAbdullah Al Mamun

Introduction• Contribution of agriculture to the GDP has been

reduced gradually from 33 percent in 1980-81 to16.33 percent in 2013-14.

• Employment in Rural Non Farm (RNF) sector isincreased to 45.5% in 2010 compared to 39.9% in1996.

• Trade and manufacturing of RNF sector contribute11.2 percent and 8.9 percent respectively to therural income while the share of service sector is only7.2 percent.

• Sixty percent of total populations belong to theworking age group while more than one fourth of thesame is youth (15-29 years). Youth constitute one-third of the labour forces in 2010.

• Employment in low productive and non-formalsectors like, agriculture has very little potential toget expected gain from the population agestructure advantage.

• In that case entrepreneurship development canplay a vital role for self employment andgenerating paid employment in rural areas.

• (Bakht, 1984), found that in rurathere is dearth ofhigh level entrepreneurial talent l areas ininnovation of process or products.

• Youth employment situation in rural areas bydifferent categories were explored in this study

Conceptual Framework

• Unemployment rate among the youth population ishigher than the overall unemployment rate inBangladesh.

• Among the unemployed youth, 63 percent hadsecondary or higher education.

• On an average only .2 million formal jobs are createdagainst the demand of 2 to 2.2 million job

• The youth unemployment rate was recorded 10.3% in2013 that is higher than the regional average. 95percent work in informal sector and 32 percent areself employed and 11 percent unpaid family worker

• Underemployment is persistent in nature and therate of underemployment is increased 16.6 percentin 2000 to 20.3

• Youth especially in rural areas try to migrate in othercountries for the prospect of higher earnings percentin 2010

• The major problems identified as mismatch betweensupply and demand of labor market, inappropriateand inadequate skill to perform effectively in thelabor market and inability to adequate job creation inthe formal sector of the economy.

• Bradley, 2005 explained environmental factors for Entrepreneurship Development

Capital availability

Presence of experiences

entrepreneurs,

Technically skill labor

force,

Accessibility of suppliers

Accessibility of customer or new market

Government influence

Availability of land or

facilities

Objectives Of the study • The general objective of the study is to assess the

employment condition of rural youths and quality ofentrepreneurial environment in rural areas.

Investigate the employment scenario

and enterprising initiative among the

rural youth ;

Assess the quality of entrepreneurial

environment and its relationship with entrepreneurship

development; and

Make policy recommendations for gainful employment

generation and entrepreneurship

dev.

Methodology

• CBMS Accelerated Poverty Profiling (APP) census• A rider questionnaire was administered to know

the situation of youth employment in rural areas• Mohammedpur (west) Union of Daudkandi

Upazila, Comilla• A total of 1575 youths of different categories

were interviewed• Some indicators were calculated from the

household profile

Findings

Housewife. 35.05

Student. 23.18

Remittance Earner. 12.04

Agr. Labour . 8.5

Service Holder. 3.89

Business. 3.59

Non Agr. Labr. 3.22

Unemployed. 3.18Other. 21.24

Occupation of Youth

One fourth of total population are Youth - Male 23.08% and female 23.86%.

Three fourths of female youths are married compared to one fourth male youth

17 percent youth were illiterate More than one third youth completed SSC to post graduation Female outnumbered male in passing (SSC) Graduation and post graduation level male outnumbered the female.

Youth Labor Force

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Paid Employee Temporary absentfrom Work

Self Employed Employed butsearching for

better

Unemployed &ready to work and

searching job

Not Searching Job

43.37

20.38

15.56

5.19 6.65 7.94

Perc

enta

ge

Youth Labor Force by Activity and Gender

Male Female Both

Situation of Unemployed Youth (n=993)

• A good portion did not search for job in last three Major Causes are as follows:

Preparing to get

entry into labour market

Waiting for the results of previous interview

Waiting to go abroad

Busy with household activities

Low level Education

12.72

56.49

2.185.86

22.76

Fig. 1: Pattern of Using Day Time by Unemployed Youth

Gossiping Helping family members Acquiring skill Political activity Reading

Salaried job At home country

41%

Self employment

37%

Job at abroad20%

others 2%

Fig. 2. Prefered Areas of Employment by Unemployed Youth

32.25

55.81

71.79

80.89

89.69

97.57100.00

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Low leveleducation

Lack of skill Poor Networking Lack of capital Social barriers Lack of familysupport

Lack ofexperiences

Cum

ulat

ive

perc

enta

ge

Resp

onse

s

Figure :03 Parato Diagram for Problems to get Employment

Count %

Employed Youth

52.73

7.27

21.82

3.6414.55

Fig. 4 Sector of Parttime Employment of Youth Students

Agriculture Reparing Private Tutor Dress Making Others

Causes: Contributing to family income (35%) , gainingexperience (33%) , meeting their educational expenses(20%), save money (10%)

A. Students with part time employment (n=55)

B. Paid Employee n=453

58%

8%

6%

4%5%

4%

4%3%

8%

Fig. 5 Paid Employee in different Sector

Agriculture Trade RestaurantRoad Construction Carpentry and massion TransportRepairing Service Sector Others

Average monthly income for the fixed salaried people are Tk.10,000 and temporary paid employee Tk. 6,650

Formal sector employee in teaching and health sector at publicsector are covered under social security program. But in theinformal sector there is no coverage of social security program.

C. Employment in Family Enterprise (n=45)

6%

64%

10%

8%

14%

Graph 6: Youth Employment in Family Enterprise by Different Sector

Cottage Agriculture Groceery Barbar others

The average salary of paid employee is around Tk. 4,000 per month

The unpaid worker in the family used to take money from the guardian of the family whenever they need it.

More than one third of the employed youth has plan to start new business or expand existing business

One third of youths has their plan to move into salaried job

Entrepreneur (n=29)

61%21%

18%

Fig. 7. Entrepreneurail Activities by Different Sector

Production/ Manufac. Service Trade

Mean age of youth entrepreneurs were 23 yrsand 10% of them were female.

• The average initial capital required for startingtheir endeavors was Tk. 43,000

• Fifty five percent entrepreneurs collect theinitial amount from their personal savings orfamily support. NGOs supports the initiatives ofnearly one fourth entrepreneurs. Bank and DYDeach supported 5 percent initiative. Besides, 11percent entrepreneurs had to depend on takingcredit from informal money market.

• Twenty five percent of the entrepreneurs gainedprevious experience

• In case of training only 7 percent of theentrepreneurs got training from department ofyouth and NGO. Monthly average profit fromtheses endeavor is recorded Tk. 4,619.

• Employed two persons in their business.• Entrepreneur himself/herself or family

members work as a manger in theirorganization.

• In most cases there is no product, processor supply chain innovation in theirendeavors.

• They used to concentrate on contributingto the traditional business by supplyingquality goods on a reasonable time frame.

• The prohibiting factors related to high risk,lack of information

• Requirement of small amount of money,availability of raw materials, existing marketfor entrepreneurial product or services, doingsomething residing at home, bright future andwork with more were identified as attractionfor starting own business in rural areas.

• Eight and ten percent of the respondentshave their plan to expand area of operationand diversify their business endeavorrespectively.

Entrepreneurial Environment

• Credit, Bank and InsuranceFinancial Environment 2.11

• Training, technical and informationSkill formation Environment2.19

• Promotional activities of Public and Private Institutes

Institutional Environment2.28

• Transportation and ElectricityInfrastructural Environment2.38

• Raw materials and MarketSupply Chain Environment2.15

• Attitude of Community and Individual Social Environment 2.18

Entrepreneurial Environment and Entrepreneurship

Quality of Entrepreneurial Environment (%)

Number of Entrepreneur (%)

Ward Number

Poor Good

1 98.61 1.39 -2 98.57 1.43 -3 36.78 63.22 12 (41.37)4 82.07 17.93 -5 98.15 1.85 4 (13.79)6 36.84 63.16 9(31.03)7 81.55 18.45 -8 100.00 0.00 1(3.44)9 51.92 48.08 3 (10.34)

Conclusion and Recommendations• Youth are homogeneous in respect of their age but

they are heterogeneous in respect of their demand, skill, attitude, family status, educational qualification etc.

• Paid job at home and abroad is the most preferred area of youth to be employed in a gainful way.

• But, it would be difficult to crate lot of jobs in the formal sector. In that context, entrepreneurship development for adding value in the product, service and process is very much essential.

• Technical and financial assistance is needed to transform the endeavor of youth into a rewarding venture. In that way entrepreneur can create their gainful employment as well as transform skill to their employee

• Public sector should give more emphasis on ensuring qualityeducation, providing skill having market demand and organizingthem into formal organization.

• Financial organizations, private organization need to be moreinnovative to cater the need of financial and other advisorysupport for starting an enterprise.

• Female youth need special attention as a good portion of themneed to be busy with household works. Innovative mechanism isneeded to employ them in a gainful way by balancing load ofhousehold and economic works.

• For developing entrepreneurial environment in rural areas publicprivate partnership is essential. Both of them can play theirpotential role on the basis of competitive advantage in acoordinated manner.

Recommendations

Thank You