Bangladesh has long been facing an unemployment crisis, and the latest numbers make that impossible to deny.
As per a recent Dhaka Tribune report, more than 906,000 university graduates are now unemployed, according to the Labor Force Survey 2023 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, a staggering rise from 799,000 from the year prior.
Over the past decade, graduate unemployment has increased nearly eightfold, even as the number of universities has expanded. Degrees are being produced faster than the economy can create jobs, and faster than institutions can equip students with the skills employers actually need.
This mismatch has been evident for some time now, but it is a problem that is only getting worse. The reality is that we have largely failed to produce job‑ready graduates with workforce preparedness.
With employers reporting chronic skills shortages and graduates reporting chronic rejection, the result is hundreds of thousands stuck in limbo -- educated, ambitious, and yet unable to find meaningful work.
This crisis is particularly significant as it threatens Bangladesh’s much talked about demographic dividend at present in addition to its economic stability and social cohesion. It is the whole of Bangladesh which loses when any form of youth unemployment remains as high as it is.
Bangladesh cannot afford to let this continue, especially as we push to take the next step in our development journey. Without urgent reform, the mismatch between education and employment will widen further, and the cost will be borne by the very generation expected to drive the nation forward.
The government must treat graduate unemployment as the national priority it is. Universities too must begin to align curricula with industry needs. Academia and the private sector have long needed to engage more, and time is running out.
Bangladesh’s young people are ready to work. Our country however must be ready to employ them.
