Creating Domestic Employment

Annually, about half a million workforce enters our labour market. This is the supply side. On the demand side, not more than 100,000 of them get some type of employment at home, owing to limited economic activities. This excess supply of labour has been creating unemployment problem in the country. The government has been attempting to overcome this problem by allowing its youth and productive population to go abroad for work. With the global control of COVID-19, in the last fiscal year alone, about 771 thousand labour permits were issued by the Department of Foreign Employment. This figure is more than the annual entry of youth in our labour market, indicating the accumulation of unemployed youth due to COVID-19. About 2500 youth are flying for foreign employment daily.

A pressing question then is to understand why we have failed to create enough job opportunities at home? A single sentence answer to this question would be: There are gaps in creating productive employment and decent work at home. The huge exodus of labour migration has caused labour shortage in various sectors while remittance has become a lifeline and means of upward mobility for many Nepali households. There are also human and social costs of foreign employment. Our natural capitals, such as land, remain untapped. Many of our youth are facing easily preventable death abroad. Other are compromising their family balance. 

Innovation

These complications have sacrificed our happiness and overall development. “Gold is meaningless if there is no peace of mind” goes a Nepali conventional wisdom. On the equilibrium, for a resource-rich country like ours, creating more and better employment at home appears to be the lasting developmental solution. Reforms in our education, industry, human capital, decent work and consumption patterns will definitely create enough domestic job opportunities.

Education is both a means and an end of development. Nepal’s education has not become employment-friendly. Admission in the general stream is not only too much but also of low quality due to excessive focus on theory. Graduates do not acquire specific skills suitable for the labour market. Reforming education have the potential to create domestic employment as well as greater access to job opportunities. Public investment in education is around 10 per cent of annual budget. This is clearly inadequate to bring desired transformations in this sector. Additional investment must be mobilised for the capacity development of teachers, improving physical infrastructures and bringing out structural and institutional changes. All these factors should facilitate much-awaited innovations in all spheres of our education system, process and outcomes. Laws governing the school, high and technical education must not be further delayed as per the constitutional provisions. They must articulate national interests and raise above petty interests. 

All levels of education should develop students physically, intellectually, technically, morally and spiritually as a global and Nepali citizen capable to compete and contribute to the motherland as well as the global humanity in their respective sectors. Private education must be regulated and facilitated. Profit and service have to be renegotiated. Dropouts have to be reduced at all levels. Increased tendency to go abroad for studying and settling has to be reversed through the injection of employment-oriented quality education at home. Old and dysfunctional curriculum must be replaced with innovative contents capable of developing students’ capacities for tapping market opportunities. 

Industrial revival is absolutely vital for creating domestic employment. Over the years, we have become an importing country as suggested by the ballooning trade deficits. More imports lead to less production at home. If we produce less, we will employ less numbers of workers. This is the root of unemployment and push factor for migration for work abroad. If we continue to import everything, we will never have industries and thereby sustainable employment at home. Industry and Commerce Ministry must play a critical role by creating conducive environment for industrial development in the country. 

Creating decent work conditions is equally critical for attracting youth to the domestic labour market. Inadequate pay, unsecure working conditions, huge informality, lack of social security for the future and a deep-seated culture of lack of dignity of work have made our labour market deficient of decent work. Reforms in these areas will attract workers in the domestic labour market. There must be tripartite collaborations among the government, employers and workers to bring about these reforms.  

Demographic dividend

Human capital formation is the foundation of domestic employment creation. Nepal’s population structure shows that working age population constitute about 62 percent of our population. This situation is known as demographic dividend. If this economically active population is not healthy, educated, properly skilled and ethical, country’s development potential is clearly undermined. Resources and efforts must be directed for human capital development. Additionally, if this population group is not mobilised within the country, Nepal will never move to the developed country status.  

Consumer awareness is crucial for domestic employment creation. Consumption of domestic goods and services creates demand for such goods. This creates incentives for domestic producers to supply. And this is how more workers will be demanded in our factories and industries. Logically, families consuming imported goods must export their family members abroad for work and earning. Every aware consumer must understand this nexus and prioritise domestic products. 

In sum, constitution and periodic plans have articulated policies to create more and better domestic employment opportunities. Article 33 of the constitution has the provision for rights to employment. Non-compliance to these policies have forced people to search for overseas employment. Foreign employment has both human and social costs while domestic resources remain untapped. Employment-oriented education, industrialisation, decent work, enhancing the quality of workforce and consumption awareness are immediately needed if Nepal has to create more and better employment opportunities at home. This is also the foundation of national prosperity and happiness.

(Dr. Bhusal works on Poverty, Unemployment and Social Protection.)