The survey revealed that 66.8 percent of the total population works 40 hours or more a week, 19.5 percent works for 20 hours to 39 hours, 11.6 percent works less than 20 hours while 2.1 percent have no work at all. The year-long Nepal Labor Force Survey 2008 also revealed that 8.1 percent of the total population is employed with inadequate earnings whereas 13.2 percent of the total workforce is suffering from skills mismatch.
Among other things, the survey helps to throw some light on the behavioral pattern and trends of the Nepali society. It’s because of the paucity of work, rather ‘sufficient’ or ‘right’ work, hundreds and thousands of young Nepalis are forced to fly abroad in search of greener pastures. One cannot deny that the money which they earn and send back home has been playing a big part in keeping our economy afloat but the fundamental question remains: Is remittance economy a sustainable economic model? Moreover, what will happen in the future to our blue-collar workers with industries increasingly becoming technology-intensive?
What about the huge chunk of the young population who are unemployed/underemployed and aren’t lucky enough to make it abroad? Since their energy has to manifest somewhere, many a times, it vents out in the form of anti-social activities. Across the world, crime rate is higher in countries with a bulging young but unemployed populace. In Nepal, they have now become readymade foot soldiers for political parties, which use them to enforce bandas or strikes or create disturbances as and when the parties have a political point to make.
A young workforce, if we are able to provide them with the right opportunities, is one of the country’s most valuable resources. It’s imperative for our state to come up with policies, programs and a vision to tap into this resource. However, for that to happen, we need leaders with vision, maturity and insight. Sadly, that is something which seems to be missing from Nepal at present giving us reasons to believe that things are going to remain chaotic for quite sometime to come.
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