My article, "The interim has failed to curb inflation and unemployment," was published in The Daily Star on Dec 29, 2025. Dr Abdullah A Dewan has delivered a rebuttal to my writing, published on January 4, 2026.

Bangladesh's inability to create adequate opportunities for its young population has moved far beyond an economic concern.

Govt must address unemployment, particularly among educated youth

Lack of investment, skills mismatch fuel high graduate joblessness rate

Among unemployed graduates, over 20 percent were women

Over the past eight years until fiscal year 2023-24, the country’s economy grew by more than 50 percent, painting a rosy picture of performance by major sectors, while the expansion did not translate into job creation.

Warnings from World Bank should be taken seriously

Take proper steps based on its recommendations

There is no certainty that the economic aspects won’t deteriorate further.

Latest BBS data shows a bleak state of unemployment in the country.

Fresh graduates, their faces pale and uncertain, spent 2024 poring over newspaper job advertisements, applying for any suitable position and frantically appearing for recruitment exams in Dhaka.

The past government had been relying on international definitions and standards that are over four decades old to measure labour data, painting a rosy picture of low unemployment and an improved labour market.

A recent Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) publication revealed that 28 percent (one out of four) of National University students remain unemployed after graduation.

Bangladesh has an oversupply of tertiary graduates and the unemployment rate among the educated youth has grown 2.5 times since 2010 as they are ‘incompatible’ with the structure of the industries and the economy, according to the white paper on the state of the economy.

Create an enabling, inspiring ecosystem for our youth

Risk assessments of the kind done by the IMF are not usually done by the government, although it would have been desirable.

However, the findings raised questions among economists, who were puzzled by the growth at a time when the economy had been facing a slowdown due to high inflation, a downtrend in export growth, and falling imports.

The number of unemployed men increased in the first quarter of this year due to a lack of job opportunities, according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released today

The responsibility for the current employability skills gap in Bangladesh is shared by many parties, including students and the UGC.

Almost every weekend, residents in Dhaka see a common scene in front of educational institutions: youths are either waiting at the gates to go inside or coming out after taking part in the recruitment tests in their efforts to land jobs.