Following the intensification of unemployment and student protests over the reservation issue, Sheikh Hasina resigned as Prime Minister and left the country. After that, unemployment in Bangladesh has increased in the last 6 months, according to reports. Here is a news collection about it.
Bangladesh is the seventh most populous country in the world. It is worth mentioning that in the country with a population of 170 million, about 30 percent are youth.
According to official statistics of 2023, one in five people between the ages of 15 and 24 in Bangladesh is unemployed. Moreover, one in five have not even completed basic education.
In Bangladesh, 87 percent of the unemployed are educated graduates. It is noteworthy that out of more than 2 million young people who look for jobs every year, about 650,000 are graduates.
Many young people are looking for government jobs in the dream of job security, good income and prestige. So, until 6 months ago, university libraries were filled with young graduates waiting for the civil-service exam. Last year, statistics show that about 3,46,000 people appeared for the exam for just 3,300 government posts.
In an environment of high unemployment, the country’s government brought 30 percent reservation for the descendants of soldiers who participated in the Bangladesh independence struggle in 1971. Protests began in universities and colleges against the reservation.
While the matter was being heard in the courts one after another, the Supreme Court ordered the reservation. After that, the student protests turned against the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
As a result, Sheikh Hasina resigned as Prime Minister and left the country. An interim government led by Nobel laureate Yunus took office.
Since then, Bangladesh’s unemployment rate has halved, according to World Bank and IMF reports. Bangladesh’s inflation has now risen to 10.34 percent.
Bangladesh’s central bank says foreign investment in the country stood at $177 million between July and November, compared with $614 million during the same period a year earlier under Sheikh Hasina.
Economists have warned that rising inflation could fuel further unrest in the country.
With neither government nor private jobs available, many young people say they are willing to do any work to meet basic needs.
The situation is made worse by the fact that the government led by 84-year-old Muhammad Yunus is being led by 26-year-old student leaders Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmood.
In Bangladesh, the same student movement leaders who brought Muhammad Yunus to power are now causing chaos in the Bangladeshi administration, political experts have said.
The truth is that Muhammad Yunus faces a very difficult challenge in restoring democracy in the country ahead of the upcoming elections.
