Around 62% of people had lost their jobs during April-May 2020 when the "general holiday" was put in place to face the first wave of Covid-19.

Subsequently only 15% could get a job the following month, while 85% remained unemployed for a longer period, according to a survey by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Almost all of these people were able to find a job by February 2021 when the adverse impact of the first wave started to recede. The study did not capture the second wave of the pandemic.

Most of the 'incremental employment' was generated in the agriculture sector, where the share of the labour force increased from 24.3% to 27.5%. At the same time, a significant number of people left the services sector, as its share of the labour force declined from 55% to 52%. For the industrial sector it remained unchanged at just above 20%.

Self-employed, contributing family members and day labourers have contributed to about 90% of the incremental jobs, indicating a substitution of formal by informal sector employment.

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Although people could find employment, they are working for a lower number of hours, on average, particularly in the agriculture sector, followed by the industry sector.

The average monthly income of individuals eroded by 11.3%. The decline in income has pushed a significant number of people into lower-income groups – indicating a higher poverty incidence. At the same time income inequality increased. 

More than 40% of the employed population reported that their employment situation was worse than the pre-COVID-19 period.

CPD Senior Research Fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan revealed the findings at the webinar "Income and Employment in Covid Times: How the People are Coping – Findings from a Household Survey" organized by CPD and Oxfam Bangladesh.

The survey was conducted in late January and early February this year, among 2,600 households equally selected from rural and urban areas.

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Towfiqul said 40% of the employed people had their employment situation worsen from the pre-Covid period and the average loan size of the households doubled in the last year with 86% of individuals not earning enough to meet daily necessities.

Dr Rizwanul Islam, former special advisor on growth, employment and poverty reduction of International Labour Organization, said the government should invest in labour-intensive rural road and infrastructure to stimulate the rural economy. "This will lead to employment and earning opportunities for various types of labour and help in stimulating the domestic market."

CPD Chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan said effective delivery of government interventions, in cash or in-kind, needs to be developed because of the impact Covid has had on employment and income.

Bangladesh Employers' Federation President Kamran T Rahman said, "There are unemployment benefits schemes in developed countries. So they can handle lockdowns easily. But we cannot do it."

"Around 20 lakh people join the job market every year in Bangladesh. Around 6.5 crore people are involved in the labour market, around 1.5 crore in formal sector and 5 crore in the informal sector."

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"SMEs all business collapsed amid the Covid-19 due to lack of demand. We have to create a demand in the economy and run industries," he added.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, convenor of Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, said the integration of recovery with structural transformation issues is highly important.

He also emphasised targeted support to disadvantaged groups which were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.