Listed unemployed increasing, no long-term employment plan

However, even after a year of returning home, he is starting to panic after not getting a job. He used to work as an AC mechanic in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The skills I learned there did not work in Kanepokhari," he said, "Let's leave the matter of 35,000 a month after coming home, it is difficult to earn even 10,000 rupees." Tamang is finding it difficult to make ends meet due to lack of regular income.

He went to the municipality to find a job. There, 416 people like Pasang had already filled the list of unemployed. The village municipality said that it will only give its construction work. That is only sometimes. One day's work does not last a month," he said. "I am looking for foreign employment again. If I find a good company, I will go abroad.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, there are 885 thousand 154 people like him who go to the local level in search of work and are listed as unemployed. The maximum number of women is 5354 and men are 384 thousand 709. There are no employers who can employ this number.

The number of unemployed registered at the local level and the number of unemployed reported by the National Labor Survey five years ago are almost the same. According to the Labor Survey-17/18, there are 98,000 unemployed across the country. But there are 2.2 million 74 thousand (69.1 percent) young people aged 15 to 34 who can work. The largest share of unemployed youth is in the age group of 15 to 24 years (38.1 percent). After this, 31.1 percent of the age group of 25 to 34 years are unemployed. This age group does not have skills, abilities and experience, so foreign employment is becoming an option as unskilled workers.

I was a cook in a hotel in Kathmandu. He had to work 18-19 hours a day in a hotel for a small salary. Haven't had another one since leaving that job. I have been unemployed for 7 months," Gopal KC of Biratnagar said, "I have no other skills. I can't do the work of a cook. People who can't get a job even after learning the skills are found everywhere. Goulakumar Das and Mahvuv Alam do electrical work. CTEVT produced many manpower like us. The produced manpower has not found work. If a house is being built in Biratnagar, 10 people come to ask for work,' said Das, 'There is no big industry. Sanatina cannot employ many people. Not just with a certificate in hand. Alam said that they are looking for long-term employment. We need twelve months of work. You can get a job for one or two months. What will happen to it?,' Alam said, 'If it is always working, there is no need to keep wandering around.'

The government has no long-term employment programs. Currently, there are 7 million 86 thousand people employed in the labor market. Of that, 26 lakh 75 thousand are employed in the formal sector. There are 44 lakh 11 thousand in the informal sector. The largest share of which is in agriculture. The agricultural sector, which can provide the largest employment, is shrinking. In the last decade, the contribution of agricultural sector to GDP is 25.9 percent and the contribution of non-agricultural sector is 74.1 percent. While the number of families dependent on agricultural income is 62 percent.

Pushpa Sharma, who is working as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University in Singapore, says that more people have to work in the agricultural sector than necessary due to the lack of employment opportunities in other sectors. "The size of our economy is small. It has relatively low competitive ability in the employment sector,' he said, 'Due to the large population of young people, it is very difficult to create enough jobs for everyone in the country.'

When even a small opportunity for foreign employment shrinks, the number of unemployed youth in the domestic labor market will start to increase. After covid, the number of unemployed has started to increase. 7 lakh Nepali workers had to return home due to job cuts in major destination countries during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of them were working in service and construction sector. In that way, the skills of the returned workers could not be identified and capital mobilized to participate in social and economic reintegration. Although the Foreign Employment Board allocated the budget for such a program, it could not be implemented.

It seems that the government is only giving pain to make the workers who have returned from foreign employment become entrepreneurs. It has asked for proposals to give interest-free money for entrepreneurship. But the subsidy is not given," said Rameshwar Nepal, South Asia Director of Equidem Research, "When will the skill test be conducted? In both of these, the government mechanism looks like confusion.'

According to Chandra Dhakal, President of Federation of Nepal Industry and Commerce, jobs cannot be created unless domestic investors are encouraged to invest. We are facing two problems in the internal labor market. A labor force is not skilled. Employers are looking for workers. Workers have to walk around looking for employers," Dhakal said. "On the other hand, jobs are not created by themselves. Investment is required. The government should create an environment for investment. According to

Economic Survey-2081, foreign investment worth 4 trillion 78 billion 85 crore rupees was approved till February 2080. It is estimated that 3 lakh 22 thousand 266 jobs will be created from the operation of this industry. Labor expert Ramesh Badal says that employment is linked to investment and economic growth. Economic growth is estimated to be 3.87 percent in the current financial year. Economic growth was 1.95 percent in the last financial year. When economic growth increases. Job opportunities also increase. When the economic growth rate of Nepal reached 7 percent, employment opportunities started to be found in the domestic market," he said, "when the economic growth rate was decreasing.

Badal says that the lack of investment in Nepal is not a labor problem but political instability. There is no labor problem in Nepal today. "Political instability led to policy instability," he said. Agriculture and construction are the sectors that provide a large number of jobs.

Finance Minister Barshman Pun claims that the investment environment has changed due to the change in the economic scenario of Nepal. We have improved the policy and legal system related to investment. This creates an investment environment and increases domestic and foreign investment," he said. "The interest rate of loans is also decreasing. There is an increase in post-research status savings. Foreign exchange reserves are adequate.'

Although the government has adopted a policy of creating employment opportunities in the country by making the labor force skilled and professional, it has not provided effective programs and necessary budget accordingly. It has been mentioned that 200,000 people will be given 100 days of employment through the Prime Minister's Employment Program in the coming financial year. It is mentioned in the budget that 100,000 people who return from abroad will be made entrepreneurs and 7,000 people will be given skill training at the state level.

Labour, Employment and Social Security Minister Dol Prasad Aryal says that an integrated record of employment information will be prepared by establishing a employment bank. "We will connect the job opportunities available in the labor market and the demand and supply of manpower to an automatic system," he said, "Sramadhan Rojgar Mela has been given priority to meet in one place between employers and workers."