Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Labor surplus in an economy can be a useful resource for development and future growth if it can be channeled through appropriate sectors and industries. Empirical evidence suggests that most of the countries that have successfully attained rapid economic development in last few decades, had done so through channeling their labor surplus mainly through both industrial and service sectors while putting a comparatively lower emphasis on the agricultural sector. However, due to difference in the economic infrastructure in different countries, the same method to utilize labor surplus may not be applicable universally. Rather being a highly agro-based country, Bangladesh may have to utilize its agricultural sector more to attain economic growth and labor surplus while looking for alternative sources such as agrobased and labor-intensive manufacturing and semi-skilled migration abroad. Bangladesh would also need to address the inefficiency of employment survey programs currently practiced in the country to get a clearer picture of the overall condition of employability and productivity in the economy. Investing in the labor intensive industries can be a great way for Bangladesh to take and sustain the growth rate of GDP to double figure, and well-established ready-made garment industry is a perfect example of that. A major area where the policymakers should now put their attention is to invest in the skill development of the human resource of the country, which could increase the remittance earning by manifold. Moreover, to create sufficient employment opportunities for all of the surplus labor force, there must be sustained GDP growth rate of 6.5 percent per annum, and this could only happen through increasing the participation of industrial and service sectors in the GDP growth rate.