Graduate unemployment in Bangladesh reaches 906,000 amid widening skills gap

Bangladesh is facing a growing employment crisis among university graduates, with the number of unemployed graduates reaching about 906,000 in 2023. The figure highlights a widening gap between the country’s expanding higher education system and the skills increasingly demanded by employers.

Data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the University Grants Commission (UGC), the government’s Economic Strategy Taskforce and the QS World Future Skills Index 2025 suggest that simply increasing access to university education has not been enough to create employment opportunities for a growing number of graduates.

According to the BBS Labour Force Survey 2023, graduate unemployment rose from 799,000 in 2022 to 906,000 in 2023. Over roughly a decade, the number has increased nearly eightfold. The Economic Strategy Taskforce found that tertiary-educated people account for 28% of Bangladesh’s unemployed population, while the graduate unemployment rate increased from 4.9% in 2010 to 12% in 2022.

The problem is also reflected in Bangladesh’s position in the global skills landscape. The QS World Future Skills Index 2025 ranked Bangladesh 67th among 81 countries for producing graduates whose skills match employer requirements. The country received an employer-alignment score of 39.1, while its overall score was 49.1.

The report also gave Bangladesh 65.7 for future-oriented academic readiness and 42.6 for future workforce preparedness. Globally, it found that 87% of employers either face or expect to face skills shortages, while more than half believe technological innovation will significantly change the skills required in future workplaces.

At the same time, Bangladesh’s higher education system has expanded rapidly. UGC data shows the country now has 163 universities, including 53 public and 110 private institutions. Since 2010, 22 public and 56 private universities have been established, while total university enrollment has reached about 4.82 million.

But expansion has not necessarily translated into improvements in educational quality or employability. UGC figures show that 38 universities have student-teacher ratios above 20:1, while 51 universities have fewer than five professors.

A particularly significant issue is the concentration of students in institutions and disciplines where employment opportunities are relatively limited. About 81% of university students are enrolled under the National University and Islamic Arabic University, while around 63% of National University students are studying humanities and social sciences.

Labour market analysts say employers are increasingly looking for skills in areas such as artificial intelligence, information technology, engineering, environmental science, renewable energy and data analytics. The mismatch between those demands and the subjects many students study is contributing to difficulties in entering the job market.

The wider employment picture has also become more challenging. The BBS Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of 2024 put total unemployment at 2.66 million, up from 2.49 million a year earlier. During the same period, the labour force declined from 61.15 million to 59.18 million, while youth labour force participation also fell.

Economists have linked the deterioration to slower job creation and economic disruptions following the July-August 2024 mass uprising. Employment generation subsequently became a major policy concern for the interim government, with officials emphasizing the need for training programmes that lead to actual employment rather than certificates alone.

Experts are now calling for changes that go beyond simply increasing university enrollment. At a Centre for Policy Dialogue discussion, Executive Director Rasheda K Choudhury argued that Bangladesh’s fragmented education system needs stronger accountability across public, private, English-medium and madrasa education.

Former Economic Strategy Taskforce member Dr Rumana Huque stressed the need to improve education quality, modernize curricula and strengthen monitoring. Bdjobs CEO AKM Fahim Mashroor also pointed to particularly high unemployment among young people aged 15 to 29 and highlighted the large contribution of National University-affiliated institutions to graduate unemployment.

National University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr SM Amanullah acknowledged governance and quality problems across the university’s extensive network of affiliated colleges, including weaknesses in academic standards, teacher quality and coordination.

BRAC representative Golam Rabbani said education, skills development and employment policies should be planned together, with stronger cooperation between government, educational institutions and businesses.

Economist Professor Selim Raihan similarly argued that expanding higher education alone cannot solve Bangladesh’s employment problem. He called for stronger industrialization, greater investment in small and medium enterprises, support for information technology and innovation, stronger university-industry links, entrepreneurship and startup development, and increased domestic and foreign investment.

The growing number of unemployed graduates therefore points to a broader challenge for Bangladesh: ensuring that higher education produces skills that match the changing economy while creating enough quality jobs to absorb the country’s young workforce.

Without stronger coordination between universities, employers and policymakers, experts warn that Bangladesh could struggle to fully benefit from its demographic dividend as technology and workplace requirements continue to change.