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Graduate employment is highly stressed in Bangladesh with the middle class unable to cope with the nature of changing market demands and its contingent labour market. The World Bank says the rate of unemployment is roughly 4.7 per cent but it's based on official statistics which is rarely reliable. It could be more or less but field level data by researchers show more hidden employment than is thought of.
Barring the hardcore unemployed including the disabled, it's best to say we don't know accurately and research doesn't throw up high rates. The problem is in the sushil white collar sector or the graduate desk bound jobs.
Many new urban employment sectors are emerging which are less known. One sector that is almost invisible is the global digital sector involved in both legal - freelancing -and non-legal employment led by gaming and betting.
Former Planning Minister MA Mannan had said that Bangladesh's economy was increasing due to the contribution of the freelancers. This was stated by him at a meeting, titled "City Bank BFDS Conference", organized by Bangladesh Freelancer Development Society (BFDS). "Our remittances are growing with the money earned by freelancers," Mr Mannan remarked. Freelancers will get 4 per cent cash assistance against the money brought home and it has been helped by the availability of the internet.
The size of the freelancer market is important. BFDS Chair Dr Tanjiba Rahman said the global market size of freelancers is about $1.5 trillion. There are over 10 lakh Bangladeshis working in this market, both online and offline. In fact, it's the global market segment that has withstood all pressures caused by the various conflicts around the world and the Covid pandemic as well.
With a 26 per cent growth rate, it's a very healthy situation. Of the 1.0 million freelancers, 0.65 million are in the field of IT.
Almost 75 per cent of freelancers are doing it as a part-time job. Freelancing in Bangladesh serves as a very good antidote to the current pay scale in our country relating to the educated.
Although the GOB is now promoting this sector, it has no role in the development of this sector. In fact, like all the major successful sectors such as external migration and RMG it can't claim any credit for its birth, growth and development. They have expanded due to opportunities taken advantage of by the entrepreneurs themselves, individual and collective.
While the RMG sector was the product of the initiatives of the better off investors, both external migration and digital freelancing belong to the rural and urban middle class respectively. It has been on for several decades and its only now being recognized by the GOB as dollar shortage has become an issue and freelancing has gained importance due to that.
Many problems and obstacles are there which the formal regulatory agencies can tackle and agencies can help. These include better policing of the internet scam including those aimed at the freelancers, training initiatives and help the freelancers with better capacity to negotiate and deal with new and regular clients. Lack of English language skills remains a major issue. However, as with the migration sector, the interest is more about incoming dollars and less about the sustainability of the sector as a whole by supporting the workers there.
The informal and non-legal digital sector is of course a shadowy world. The rise and explosive growth of the internet gaming and betting sector has largely gone unnoticed in the media but its growth is phenomenal and is the largest internal economic sector drawing particularly the young.
"The total value of bets placed through sports betting is estimated at around 8.5 billion taka per year. As of today, the most popular sports in Bangladesh are cricket, football, athletics, cycling, swimming, and other sports that are played in South Asia. The most popular sporting event in Bangladesh is the cricket match between Bangladesh and India. Each year, more than 10 million Bangladeshi people view cricket matches on television, which is the highest number of viewers of any event in the country."
No estimate is possible but that millions of bettors are involved is a fact. The issue is, most don't guarantee regular payments but like all gambling outfits offer uncertainty and insecure income. On top of that a significant percentage of the outfits operate outside the law. However, the gambling market size is so huge that international betters are hiring locally for even external employment.
Most of the gambling networks are controlled from outside Bangladesh and the locals are not English friendly. As a result a new sector has grown up where youth are hired and taken abroad to work in betting help centres who can communicate with Bangladeshi clients.
Given the internet penetration in Bangladesh, this can only grow. Unlike the freelancers their work is only of one kind and the system of payment is also not transparent. Their linkages with the other sectors including drugs and sex work sites are also common knowledge.
The fact remains that the formal institutional economy is weak in Bangladesh and given the global competitive scenario, the chances of becoming competitive is not high. The formal sector and the state agencies are unable to develop a framework that ensures higher employment. Plus the education system is not employment friendly. That has led to this situation where informal employment arrangements by individuals and groups score much better than state agencies.
Since nothing suggests that the capacity of the GOB to be a major player in employment generation is about to happen quickly, the support and capacity development will be fulfilled by the private sector. They do exist but much more needs to be done to meet the growing demand of the internet-based private sector labour intensive economy.