4 Million New Jobs Added In 10 Years In Nepal
September 8, 2020 | Investopaper
In the decade between 2008 and 2018, 4 million new jobs have been added in Nepal. According to the World Bank’s ‘Nepal Job Diagnostic’ report 2018, 3.95 million jobs have been added in the country in the same period. However, the study also showed that the country is still weak in creating paid and good quality employment. The World Bank said the study did not address the impact of corona on the country’s employment.
The study has shown that out of the added employment in the decade of 2008-2018, 1.83 million or 46.33 percent were working for salary or wages. Similarly, the study has also shown that 2.12 million or 53.67 percent performed jobs with no pay. According to the study, out of 1.8 million wage-earnings jobs, more than 1.2 million men got jobs and only 510,000 women got jobs. Most of the wage-earning jobs i.e 1.71 million were temporary jobs. The study also concludes that out of 2.1 million unpaid jobs, 1.69 million were women. Of them, 1.24 million were engaged in agriculture. Similarly, 440,000 men were involved in unpaid work.
Shift From Agriculture To Industry & Service Economy
The study have shown that Nepal’s economy is slowly shifting from subsistence-oriented agriculture to a modern industrial and service-oriented economy, which has created good jobs. The contribution of the agricultural sector to the economy has declined from 38 percent in 1998 to 32 percent in 2018. However, the contribution of the service sector has increased from 45 percent to 53 percent in the same period. The contribution of the industrial sector to the economy has shrunk from 17 percent to 15 percent during the period.
In terms of job creation, the agricultural sector provided employment to 76 percent of the people in 1998, but in 2018, only 63 percent of them found employment in agriculture. During this period, employment in the industrial sector increased from 10 percent to 16 percent and employment in the service sector increased from 14 percent to 21 percent.
Out of the 27 million working age population in Nepal, 16 million were active in the labor force. Out of that, 15.7 million are employed and 300,000 are unemployed, according to the Labor Force Survey 2018. Out of the 15.7 million employed, 8.6 million or 55 percent are subsistence workers. Of them, 7.9 million are engaged in agriculture.
