Job postings by employers in the major job hunting websites in Bangladesh have sharply declined by around 87% in April, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
The sharp decline in new jobs is due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, says a survey.
According to an Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s survey titled “Covid-19 Impact on Job Postings: Real-Time Assessment Using Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Online Job Portals,” in April 2020, total job postings in the largest online job searching sites declined by 87% in Bangladesh and 70% in Sri Lanka compared to the same month in 2019.
Bangladesh’s data was taken from Bdjobs.com, and Sri Lanka’s from topjobs.lk, two of the leading online job portals in the two countries in terms of number of job postings.
In 2019, over 60,000 jobs were posted on Bdjobs.com, while there were 200,000 visitors and over 1 million page views per day.
Other online job portals in Bangladesh include Chakri.com, JOB.COM.BD, and alljobsbd.com.
The number of job postings dropped sharply from the third week of March, just after a week of the first cases of Covid-19 were confirmed and nationwide lockdown was implemented, said the report.
As compared to December 2019, the number of new job postings was approximately the same in January 2020, and 10%–17% fewer during February, and the first and second weeks of March.
In the third week of March, it fell to 59% from that of December 2019 and 24% in the fourth week of March.
Compared to the same months in the previous year, monthly job postings were 35% fewer in March, and 87% fewer in April 2020, although job postings in February 2020 were only 1% lower, the survey findings showed.
A sharp decrease in job postings has occurred across all industries with little variations.
For example, compared to April 2019, the number of job postings in April 2020 was down by 95% in textile and education industries, and by 92% in the manufacturing industry, the survey added.
As per the survey findings, the sharp decline in the textile industry may be related to the pandemic affecting key export markets such as Europe and the United States. The manufacturing industry is also affected by disruptions in intermediate imports.
While significantly affected, the reduction in health sector job postings was 82%, and 81% in ICT.
The non-government organization job postings declined by 64%, which was much better than other industries, possibly due to the need for development assistance in the current emergency, it added.
Using online job portal data, this report undertakes a rapid assessment of labour demand in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to understand the impacts of Covid-19. This assessment builds on previous experience of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in skill demand analysis using online job portal data.
