Expecting a budget that creates jobs

Every year, approximately 2.3 million educated young people enter the job market. However, the number of decent jobs being created is negligible. Through the BCS system, only about 3,000–4,000 positions are available. In the private sector, management trainee programs in banks and large corporations recruit perhaps a few dozen to a few hundred candidates. This stark mismatch between job supply and demand is pushing the country toward what can be described as a "futureless society."

According to Bdjobs CEO Fahim Mashroor, around 800,000 to 1 million educated unemployed individuals are added to the labour force every year. Furthermore, the National University, which serves millions of students, has been described as the "largest jobless-producing factory," as it produces graduates without corresponding employment opportunities. With around 3.8 million students enrolled, even ensuring one job per college would require tens of thousands of quality jobs—something that is clearly lacking.

There are roughly 2,500 colleges under the supervision of the National University. If you want to employ only one graduate from each college, you will need at least 2500 decent jobs. What scopes is our economy creating for them?

There are banks taking deposits of billions of taka and making a profit. How many graduates are they employing?

Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh reported a net profit of Tk3,300 crore for the year 2024, the largest annual gain in the country's banking sector. It operates through six branches only. How many graduates does it recruit?

Local banks are not exceptions either. How many jobs do good-performing local banks like City Bank offer? They can do a lot more, but they do not.

Students at private universities like ours spend Tk20 lakh to Tk25 lakh as tuition fees alone to complete graduation, forget about accommodation and food expenses. After completion, they madly search for a job and struggle to find a meagre salary of Tk15,000 and even far less in cases. If they had saved the amount in a bank account instead of spending it as tuition fees, they would have earned a much higher amount every month as interest proceeds.

Graduates should have access to interest-free loans for skill recalibration so that they can remain competitive and adapt to job market needs, or at least launch a venture on their own.

Schools across the country are running short of skilled teachers, and fresh graduates can be attracted to teaching at institutions away from cities. If better pay is offered to lead a decent life, job-seeking university graduates will be encouraged to teach at remote schools like those working for NGOs and projects. Even madrasahs can absorb such fresh graduates who can contribute to the improvement of quality in education at the secondary level.The 

The National Board of Revenue itself can create jobs for hundreds of graduates in tasks like tax auditing. The country's private sector, apart from creating jobs at home, can also explore overseas job markets in a bigger and more disciplined way in areas such as caregiving, nursing and other skilled and semi-skilled trades.

With roughly 4 crore students at all levels, education itself can be a vital sector for investment. Unfortunately, we could not turn it into an industry with a working partnership between the public and private sectors.

The budget needs to have a clear and effective job creation strategy through providing incentives to businesses that generate jobs and facilitating an environment that encourages investment and entrepreneurship. We expect a realistic, job-oriented national budget.

High taxation does not create jobs — on the contrary, it can act as a job killer. Sustainable employment growth can only be achieved through pro-business policies, stable fiscal frameworks, and an environment that encourages investment and entrepreneurship.

The article was based on a telephone conversation with Dr AKM Waresul Karim, Dean, School of Business and Economics, North South University.