Bangladesh must build a national consensus to prepare its workforce for the disruptive effects of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and structural economic change, researchers and international experts said on Wednesday.
The suggestion came at a global webinar organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) under the FutureWORKS Asia initiative, where speakers argued that Bangladesh's challenge lay less in identifying problems than in implementing coordinated reforms across education, employment, industrial policy, and social protection.
Presenting findings from the CPD's latest foresight study titled "Is Bangladesh Ready for the Future of Work? Preparing the Labour Market for Automation, AI, and Structural Transition", the think tank's Additional Research Director Towfiqul Islam Khan said the country's labour market was approaching a critical transition that required long-term planning rather than short-term responses.
Unlike conventional labour market studies, the study used a structured foresight methodology in which experts assessed and ranked 27 global and national drivers expected to shape Bangladesh's labour market by 2035.
The exercise identified two critical uncertainties -- the pace of expansion of the global digital economy and changing social aspirations -- while testing four plausible future scenarios for the country.
The study found that five trends were likely to persist regardless of how the future unfolded -- irreversible digitalisation, a shift towards higher-value services, continued mismatch between education and labour market needs, recurring external shocks, including climate change and post-LDC graduation challenges, and the growing importance of institutional agility.
Drawing on the recent labour market data, Khan said Bangladesh's economic growth had not translated into sufficient decent employment.
According to the study, the country lost around 1.3 million jobs in 2024, with women accounting for about 90 per cent of those losses.
Around 1.22 million jobs in the ready-made garment sector could come under threat from automation by 2041, while nearly 60 per cent of female garment jobs face the risk of displacement.
Despite rising manufacturing output, employment in the sector remained below 2013 levels, and services now employed around 25 million people, many of them in insecure jobs.
The presentation also highlighted structural weaknesses in Bangladesh's labour market, including widespread informality, sluggish employment growth, low female labour force participation, a high proportion of young people not in employment, education or training, widening skills gaps, and inadequate labour market data systems for evidence-based policymaking.
Chairing the webinar, CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said the world of work was undergoing a transformation unlike previous technological shifts, while institutions and policies were struggling to keep pace.
He said policymakers must move beyond simply diagnosing problems and focus on translating research into action through stronger public institutions, partnerships, and political commitment.
Dr Debapriya also stressed the need to quantify both job creation and job displacement arising from technological change so that labour market policies could respond effectively.
He said the Ministry of Labour should broaden its focus beyond employment regulation and job creation to ensuring inclusive employment and matching workers' skills with the changing market demand.
The study identified four recurring weaknesses in Bangladesh's current policy framework -- emerging issues, such as platform work and portable social protection, remain outside the policy agenda; automation risks have yet to influence industrial incentives and technical education; policies fail to distinguish between new entrants, displaced workers, and existing employees; and many initiatives lack the institutional capacity, financing, and data systems needed for implementation.
To address these gaps, the CPD proposed eight priority reforms that it said would remain relevant under every future scenario.
These include reforming education and technical and vocational training through stronger industry participation; promoting lifelong reskilling; linking industrial incentives with employment generation; increasing public investment in skills development; building an integrated labour market information system; modernising social protection for gig and platform workers; providing targeted support for women, young people, and persons with disabilities; and establishing a national framework to coordinate employment, education, industrial, and social protection policies.
The webinar brought together experts from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Argentina, and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
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