Region to add 14.4 m entrants to labour market

The South Asian region which holds up 40% of the world’s absolute poor is expected to contribute 40% of the growth in the world’s working age population over the next several decades.

World Bank Country Manager for Nepal Tahseen Sayed stated that even though half of South Asia’s poor is concentrated on lagging border regions; the countries will add 1.2 million new entrants to the labour force every month for the next two decades.

For a year, this would mean 14.4 million new entrants, the approximate size of Cambodia. Within the two decades the region will provide 300 million new entrants to the work force, roughly the size of today’s super power USA. More female participation in the labour force is also in the rise as experienced from East Asian countries, she said. “Absorbing them all in to the labour force at rising levels of output per worker is the crux of South Asia’s employment challenges,” Sayed said.