Two billion jobs to be at risk by 2030
With rapid technological advancement and the ever-increasing digitisation of various industries, a large number of expatriate workers employed in blue-collar jobs may have to return home by 2030 due to job displacement. As this newspaper reported yesterday, the number of jobs expected to be displaced by the year 2030 now stands at two billion and may easily rise given the speed at which technology is currently moving forward.
One study suggests that Bangladesh would lose about 53.8 lakh jobs by 2041 from only five sectors because of increased automation. This, under any circumstances, should be of grave concern. However, given that the youth now comprises of 65 percent of our population, Bangladesh has a window of opportunity to rapidly place itself in a position of strength during the fourth industrial revolution.
According to experts, both the public and private sectors should immediately adopt new technologies that are now available such as smart manufacturing, analytics and the Internet of Things, among others. And our education should be made more technology-driven in order to train people, particularly the youth, to be more proficient at handling this new influx of technology.
2030 is not far away, and the rate of change in technology use that we are currently seeing means that the government and the private sector do not have much time to make the necessary adjustments as called for by experts. Therefore, we urge both to start drawing up their plans for the approaching industrial revolution now so that Bangladesh does not lag behind other countries as it had done during past industrial revolutions.
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