Originally posted in The Business Standard on 5 February 2023
Bangladesh lacks regular and quality labour data though it is significant to ensure inclusive economic growth, according to economists in a session on Sunday.
“For a labour-abundant country like Bangladesh, employment is a better indicator of development in many ways. When we talk about growth, it has to be inclusive that we need to see through the lens of employment. Why do we not grow this often through policymakers? Because we do not have regular labour force data,” Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue said in a breakout session titled “Labour Market” at Brac Centre Inn in the capital.
“I think data availability is also very important if we look into the US papers or analysis, they always highlight the employment figure over economic growth,” he told the event at the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem) annual economists’ conference.
“In Bangladesh, we have seen that development in the past has often been explained by economic growth and our record of economic growth. Now there is fatigue there,” Towfiqul Islam Khan added.
“I would recommend to a lot of young researchers to push for new data that we require to do more rigorous analysis that can provide better policy conclusions also,” he said further.
At the session, pointing to the RMG sector, Maheen Sultan, senior fellow of Brac Institute of Governance and Development, said that there is a lack of transparency in national data.
As the chair, Prof Mohammad Mainul Islam of the Population Sciences department of Dhaka University said, “At present, Bangladesh and India have more than 65% of the working age population (15 to 64 years). We have found that the dependency ratio is much more favourable and it will continue until 2035.”
“But this does not mean that Bangladesh and India are gaining maximum economic benefit unless the economic variables like employment generation, investing in health, quality education and good governance are addressed. So these are pre-condition actually,” he added.
A total of four papers were presented in the session.