Unemployment rate in Nepal to increase: ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has projected unemployment rate to increase in Nepal.

The unemployment rate that stands at 2.69 per cent is projected to increase to 2.71 per cent in the year 2014 and 2.72 per cent a year next in 2015, according to a recent ILO report.

Though the unemployment rate of the international labour agency and ground level scenario does not match, unemployment covers people who are: out of work, want a job, have actively sought work in the previous four weeks and are available to start work within the next fortnight; or out of work and have accepted a job that they are waiting to start in the next fortnight, according to the ILO definition.

The unemployment rate is calculated according to percentage of economically active people who are unemployed on the ILO measure.

The employment is still focused around informal and agriculture work, which is generally poorly paid and lacks social protection, the annual report said, adding that more than three-in-four workers are classified as in vulnerable employment – in South Asia including Nepal – a proportion that has fallen only slightly in recent years. "Around one-in-two workers are in agriculture and only one-in-five receive a salary or wage."

According to the recent Agriculture survey of Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), some 71 per cent of Nepalis are involved in subsistence agriculture.

Due to de-industrialisation in the country and subsistence agriculture, some 1,700 youths leave the country to Gulf and Malaysia in search of employment. Successive government's failure in commercialisation of agriculture has made the agriculture less attractive as it has lost competitiveness and detracted the youth from farm, though involvement of economically active population has seen increased in agriculture reducing the rate of unemployment to 2.69 per cent.