Youth Employment Scenario in Rural Areas of Bangladesh:

A Case of Mohammedpur West Union

Ranjan Kumar Guha

Abdullah Al Mamun
 Introduction
• Contribution of agriculture to the GDP has been
reduced gradually from 33 percent in 1980-81 to
16.33 percent in 2013-14.
• Employment in Rural Non Farm (RNF) sector is
increased to 45.5% in 2010 compared to 39.9% in
1996.
• Trade and manufacturing of RNF sector contribute
11.2 percent and 8.9 percent respectively to the
rural income while the share of service sector is only
7.2 percent.
• Sixty percent of total populations belong to the
working age group while more than one fourth of the
same is youth (15-29 years). Youth constitute one-
third of the labour forces in 2010.
• Employment in low productive and non-formal
sectors like, agriculture has very little potential to
get expected gain from the population age
structure advantage.
• In that case entrepreneurship development can
play a vital role for self employment and
generating paid employment in rural areas.
• (Bakht, 1984), found that in rurathere is dearth of
high level entrepreneurial talent l areas in
innovation of process or products.
• Youth employment situation in rural areas by
different categories were explored in this study
 Conceptual Framework
• Unemployment rate among the youth population is
higher than the overall unemployment rate in
Bangladesh.
• Among the unemployed youth, 63 percent had
secondary or higher education.
• On an average only .2 million formal jobs are created
against the demand of 2 to 2.2 million job
• The youth unemployment rate was recorded 10.3% in
2013 that is higher than the regional average. 95
percent work in informal sector and 32 percent are
self employed and 11 percent unpaid family worker
• Underemployment is persistent in nature and the
rate of underemployment is increased 16.6 percent
in 2000 to 20.3
• Youth especially in rural areas try to migrate in other
countries for the prospect of higher earnings percent
in 2010
• The major problems identified as mismatch between
supply and demand of labor market, inappropriate
and inadequate skill to perform effectively in the
labor market and inability to adequate job creation in
the formal sector of the economy.
• Bradley, 2005 explained environmental factors
for Entrepreneurship Development

Capital
availability
Availability of Presence of
land or experiences
facilities entrepreneurs,

Technically
Government
skill labor
influence
force,

Accessibility of
Accessibility of
customer or
suppliers
new market
 Objectives Of the study
• The general objective of the study is to assess the
employment condition of rural youths and quality of
entrepreneurial environment in rural areas.

Assess the quality of Make policy

Investigate the
entrepreneurial recommendations for
employment scenario
environment and its gainful employment
and enterprising
relationship with generation and
initiative among the
entrepreneurship entrepreneurship
rural youth ;
development; and 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
One fourth of total population are Youth - Male 23.08% and female 23.86%.

Remittance Occupation of Youth

Earner. 12.04

Agr. Labour . 8.5

Service Holder. 3.89

Business. 3.59
Student. 23.18 Non Agr. Labr. 3.22
Other. 21.24
Unemployed. 3.18

Housewife. 35.05

 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

Youth Labor Force by Activity and Gender

43.37
45
40
35
30
Percentage

25 20.38
20 15.56
15
6.65 7.94
10 5.19
5
0
Paid Employee Temporary absent Self Employed Employed but Unemployed & Not Searching Job
from Work searching for ready to work and
better searching job

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
Waiting for
to get Busy with
the results Waiting to Low level
entry into household
of previous go abroad Education
labour activities
interview
market
 Fig. 1: Pattern of Using Day Time by Unemployed Youth

12.72
22.76

5.86
2.18

56.49

Gossiping Helping family members Acquiring skill Political activity Reading

Fig. 2. Prefered Areas of Employment by Unemployed

Youth
others
2%
Job at abroad
20%

Salaried job At
home country
41%

Self
employment
37%
 Figure :03 Parato Diagram for Problems to get Employment
100.00 100
97.57
300
89.69 90

80.89 80
250
71.79 70

Cumulative percentage
200
60
Responses

55.81
50
150
40

100 32.25
30

20
50
10

0 0
Low level Lack of skill Poor Networking Lack of capital Social barriers Lack of family Lack of
education support experiences

Count %
 Employed Youth
A. Students with part time employment (n=55)
Fig. 4 Sector of Parttime Employment of Youth Students

14.55
3.64

52.73
21.82

7.27

Agriculture Reparing Private Tutor Dress Making Others

Causes: Contributing to family income (35%) , gaining

experience (33%) , meeting their educational expenses
(20%), save money (10%)
 B. Paid Employee n=453

Fig. 5 Paid Employee in different Sector

3%
4% 8%
4%

5%
4%
6% 58%

8%

Agriculture Trade Restaurant

Road Construction Carpentry and massion Transport
Repairing 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 public
sector are covered under social security program. But in the
informal sector there is no coverage of social security program.
 C. Employment in Family Enterprise (n=45)

Graph 6: Youth Employment in Family Enterprise by Different Sector

14% 6%

8%

10%

64%

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)

Fig. 7. Entrepreneurail Activities by Different Sector

18%

21%
61%

Production/ Manufac. Service Trade

Mean age of youth entrepreneurs were 23 yrs

and 10% of them were female.
• The average initial capital required for starting
their endeavors was Tk. 43,000
• Fifty five percent entrepreneurs collect the
initial amount from their personal savings or
family support. NGOs supports the initiatives of
nearly one fourth entrepreneurs. Bank and DYD
each supported 5 percent initiative. Besides, 11
percent entrepreneurs had to depend on taking
credit from informal money market.
• Twenty five percent of the entrepreneurs gained
previous experience
• In case of training only 7 percent of the
entrepreneurs got training from department of
youth and NGO. Monthly average profit from
theses endeavor is recorded Tk. 4,619.
• Employed two persons in their business.
• Entrepreneur himself/herself or family
members work as a manger in their
organization.
• In most cases there is no product, process
or supply chain innovation in their
endeavors.
• They used to concentrate on contributing
to the traditional business by supplying
quality 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 market
for entrepreneurial product or services, doing
something residing at home, bright future and
work with more were identified as attraction
for starting own business in rural areas.
• Eight and ten percent of the respondents
have their plan to expand area of operation
and diversify their business endeavor
respectively.
 Entrepreneurial Environment

• Credit, Bank and Insurance

Financial Environment 2.11

Skill formation Environment • Training, technical and information

2.19

Institutional Environment • Promotional activities of Public and Private

2.28 Institutes

Infrastructural Environment • Transportation and Electricity

2.38

Supply Chain Environment • Raw materials and Market

2.15

• Attitude of Community and Individual

Social Environment 2.18
 Entrepreneurial Environment and
Entrepreneurship

Quality of Entrepreneurial Environment Number of

(%) Entrepreneur (%)
Ward Poor Good
Number
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
 Recommendations

• Public sector should give more emphasis on ensuring quality

education, providing skill having market demand and organizing
them into formal organization.
• Financial organizations, private organization need to be more
innovative to cater the need of financial and other advisory
support for starting an enterprise.
• Female youth need special attention as a good portion of them
need to be busy with household works. Innovative mechanism is
needed to employ them in a gainful way by balancing load of
household and economic works.
• For developing entrepreneurial environment in rural areas public
private partnership is essential. Both of them can play their
potential role on the basis of competitive advantage in a
coordinated manner.
Thank You