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THE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT ISSUE IN BHUTAN

Youth are the most privileged group of population in Bhutan and are entrusted by the great
leaders as nation builders. However, youth unemployment is regarded as one of the toughest
issues so far and the government on the other hand is trying the best on this issue thinking that it
is likely to ruin the lives of youth. Thus, this essay will discuss the major factors contributing to
the youth unemployment issues such as lack of skills, lack of confidence, mismatch of
qualification and experience with the targeting jobs and some possible effects and solutions to
this issue.

The lack of skills required for employees can lead to unemployment. Firms have their own
missions and visions to be fulfilled over a period of time and to do so it is their priority to
employ right people to the right post. According to Dolkar. T (2014, p. 49), youth leave school
early and tend to seek employment rather than study. However, early school leavers in Bhutan
have very few choices for jobs. Currently, most youth entering the labor market do so with a
mid-secondary level education and finds it difficult to get employed. As per the Labor market
information bulletin, 2014, it is found that 83percent of the total work force was employed
without trainings and relatively 16.9 percent were employed with some forms of trainings. Thus,
the firms look for a skilled employees and youth today were subjected to the classroom teachings
and learning. It indicates that the skills should be acquired along with the school education. It
will not only help them in getting employed but also in building confidence in them.

Lack of confidence in youth is another factor contributing to the youth unemployment issue.
Bhutan is a developing country and there are a number of employment scopes, which can not
only help to get self-employed, but also help the nation to overcome the issue. Entrepreneurship
among all is the best opportunity that our youth have got today. There are businesses scopes that
are not yet done in Bhutan and that has a scope in fulfilling nations vision; self-reliance. But due
to the lack of confidence, youth do not take risk in starting an entrepreneur. It is noted in the
annual report of Ministry of Labor and Human Resources (2014-2015) that MoHLR has trained
452 youth in various Entrepreneurship course out of which 27 graduates did trainings in advance
entrepreneurship course. However, by seeing the number of graduates attending, the youth wants
to get employed in the government or non-government organizations rather than getting self-
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THE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT ISSUE IN BHUTAN
employed with risks. The youths must be trained and let them see the opportunities available,
while qualification on the hand is considered important.

The third major cause of youth unemployment in Bhutan is mismatch between their qualification
and their expectations. Suhonen, stated that the civil service cannot absorb the number of
graduates anymore, and on the other hand, university educated youth do not feel themselves
suited to work in the farms either. The large cohorts of young people entering the colleges and
eventually the job market are thus feared to remain unemployed because of mismatch between
the jobs available and aspirations and skills of the graduates (2014, p.66). The youth and their
parent aspires for a white collar job and the government on the other hand is striving to create
jobs, is found to be the most competing game of survival for the fittest. According to the findings
of 13th National Labour Force Survey (2015), higher unemployment amongst youth with higher
education can be attributed to the fact that youth with higher education qualification aspires for
more specific job choices or it may also be due to the mismatch between the qualification they
possess and the available jobs in the market which reduces the prospects for educated youths to
find the job relevant to their qualification. With the growth of population and new education
systems, youth completes their education at young age letting them enter the job market as early
as adolescence with limited experience can also lead to this mismatch. However, Ministry of
Labor and Human Resources is trying to bring down the unemployment rate to 2.5 at the end of
eleventh five year plan.

There are few solutions to bring youth unemployment rate such as educating with trainings,
replacing the foreign employers and encouraging youth to start entrepreneurship. Education
beyond classroom makes the youth aware of social norms and some field attachments with
interns during breaks can be helpful when they enter the job markets. And as per the Labor
Market Information Bulletin (2014), Bhutan has 44,427 foreign workers employed by major
occupational group. Thus, these can be replaced by youth through gaining experience from them
in future. The last possible solution is to encourage entrepreneur to youth. It takes smart
innovative youth to take chances and start businesses. The government should provide plate
forms to the youths where they can have access to learning of a highly informative, educative
and wise strategies and plan for more success in the field through seminars, workshops and
trainings.
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THE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT ISSUE IN BHUTAN
Thus, Lack of skills required by the job market, lack of confidence to take risk in getting self-
employed and mismatch of qualification and experience with job market were the key factors
leading to youth unemployment in Bhutan and it can lead to the grouping, abusing substances,
smuggling, robbery etc.. However, solutions such as education along with trainings stop
recruiting foreigners in Bhutan and replacing the current foreigner employed and encouraging
entrepreneurships among youths can be a good solution to achieve full employment by bringing
down the unemployment rate to 2.5 percent by 2020 as stated in the eleventh five year plan.
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THE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT ISSUE IN BHUTAN

References

Dolkar,Tshering (2014). Understanding and identifying early school leaver in need of

professional help. Accepting the Potential of Youth, through the Lens of Experience.

Eleventh Five Year Plan. Volume 1: Main Document, (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.gnhc.gov.bt/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Eleventh-Five-Year-Plan.pdf

Labour Market Information Bulletin, MoLHR (2014), Retrieved from

http://www.molhr.gov.bt/molhr/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Final-draft-Labour-Market-
Information-Bulletin-2014-1.pdf

Ministry of Labour and Human Resources Annual Report (Fiscal year 2014-2015), August,2015.
Retrieved from http://www.molhr.gov.bt/molhr/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Annual-Report-for-
the-Fiscal-Year-2014-15-.pdf

Press Release, 13th National Labour Force Survey (2015). Retrieved from
http://www.molhr.gov.bt/molhr/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Press-Release-on-LFS-
2015_Final.pdf

Suhonen, R. (2014). Youth civic engagement in Bhutan and globally. Accepting the Potential of
Youth, through the Lens of Experience.