Representational Image Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO)’s flagship report titled 'World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2020', released on Monday, Bangladesh’s overall unemployment rate came down to 4.2% last year from 4.3% in 2018
The country’s women unemployment rate came down by four percentage points to 6.2% in 2019 from 6.6% in the previous year, reveals a report of the International Labour Organization.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO)’s flagship report titled “World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2020”, released on Monday, Bangladesh’s overall unemployment rate came down to 4.2% last year from 4.3% in 2018.
However, the country's male unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.3% in the same period.
Meanwhile, the ILO forecast that the country’s women unemployment rate will come down to 6% in 2020, while the male unemployment will increase to 3.4% but the overall unemployment will remain unchanged at 4.2% in 2020.
According to the report, women unemployment rate is still higher than that of their male counterpart.
As per the report, women participation in labour was 36.3% in 2019, while male participation was 81.4% in the same year.
Women participation is still high in the agriculture at 57%, which is 25% in services sector and 18% in industry.
As per the report, women participation in service sector is increasing while it is declining in agriculture.
“There are pronounced gender disparities in the employment-to-population ratio (EPR), which show that women are disproportionately confronted with barriers to accessing work," said the report.
The gender gap remained significant, despite having declined over the past few decades globally and across all income groups, it added.
The gender gap is wide among lower-middle income groups in population-rich countries in South Asia such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
These stark gender disparities in excess to employment reflect gender roles that emphasize women as the main caregivers and men as the main breadwinners, in addition to cultural resistance against women’s employment and gender equality.
“Insufficient creation of decent work, combined with high population and a lack of inclusiveness make it very difficult to improve working conditions and reduce poverty in low-income countries in South Asia including Bangladesh, India and Pakistan,” said ILO Bangladesh Country Director Tuomo Poutiainen.
“There is a real need to invest in people’s capabilities like life-long learning, gender equality, and social security," said Tuomo.
A sustainable and inclusive path of development can only be achieved if labour market inequalities and gender gaps in access to decent work are tackled, he added.
According to the report, the global unemployment was 5.4% in 2019, where female unemployment rate was 5.6% followed by male 5.3%.
In South Asian country, overall unemployment rate was 5.4% in the last year and women unemployment was 5.8% and male 5.2%.
